Beta Lore by Beta Theta Pi

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BETA LORE

FRANCIS W. SHEPARDSON President o f Beta Theta Pi The official photograph, distributed among the chapters by the fraternity in 1927 on order of the General Convention.

BETA LORE ,

Sentiment Song and Story in B eta T

h eta

By F r a n c is

S h ep ard son ,

Ph.D., LL.D.

President of the Fraternity

Published by B e ta T h e ta

Collegiate ^ reaa G

eorge

an ta

u b l is h in g

Menasha, W isconsin

I928

o m pan y

B eta T

h eta

F r a t e r n it y

A ll Rights Reserved

“ Memory peoples our mystic shrine with faces we knew Auld Lang Syne.” — Beta Song

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O T H E treasured memory of Charles J. Seaman, Wyllys C. Ransom, and E. Bruce Chandler, from whose overflowing reservoirs of sentiment and zeal for Beta Theta P i an eager college lad drank copious draughts in golden days gone by: and to those living fountains of Beta loyalty, love and lore, Willis O. Robb, J. Cal Hanna, and George M. Chandler, this volume is dedicated in ------ xac — — .

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“ Friendship’s bond w ill never break. It binds our hearts forever” — Beta Song

TH E THREE STARS James

a t f ie l d ,

Northwestern ’83

H ere’s to those who share our lot, Friends till death shall part; Comrades true in grief and joy, Men of loyal heart. Never shall life’s weal or woe Brothers’ love divide; In the battle and the storm Standing side by side. Here’s to joys of thought and mind Shared by spirits rare, Mounting higher day by day, Breathing purer air. Richer gains that crown our toil, Less of lower earth; L ife that grows more deep and full, Souls that learn their worth. Here’s to faith that’s firm and strong, Proof against all fate; Confidence o f man in man, Brave to hope and wait. Let the seas between us roll, Rage each hostile gale! W e have known each other once, Trust shall never fail.

CONTENTS I. II.

Interpretations ................................................................................. Ideals

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III.

Testimonies .....................................................................................

5°

IV .

Stories of Sentim ent......................................................................

The Fraternity Badge ..................................................................

V I.

Beta B o y s .........................................................................................

114

V II.

“ The Boys of ’39” ....................................... .................................

136

V III.

“ In Days of Y ore” ........................................................................

19°

IX.

Chapter L ife and L o r e ..................................................................

222

Sentiment and the In d iv id u al................................... ..................

255

X I.

Wooglinana .....................................................................................

3°4

X II.

Fraternity Fun ...............................................................................

317

X III.

Beta F ic tio n .....................................................................................

330

X IV .

The Son of the S t a r s ........ .................................1..........................

349

XV.

Suggestions for S e r v ic e ................................................................

365

X V I.

The Adytum ...................................................................................

398

X V II.

“ The Long Illustrious Line” ........................................................

439

X V III.

The Monuments .............................................................................

475

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THE SENTIMENT OF THE FRATERNITY “W ho can forget, while mem’ry lives and hearts beat loyally, The jo y we felt when first we knew our Beta Theta P i? Though years may roll and cares may come, in living letters set Shall still remain this love we bear, the love we can’t forget.”

The power of sentiment has been great in Beta Theta Pi from the beginning. On April 10, 1841, Founder Charles Henry Hardin wrote to Founder John Reily K nox: “Bless the star that rose when I became a B e ta ; for it was the happiest moment of my life. T he bond of Beta Theta Pi is the most admirable association ever thought of by man.”

Founder Hardin lived to become a lawyer and a banker, state representa tive, state senator, governor of Missouri; but still, “ cherished with even greater affection amid the graver cares of later life,” remained the love for Beta Theta Pi. On December 9, 1843, William B. Woods, Western Reserve ’45, wrote to James Brown, Miami ’44: “H ow beautiful is our system— uniting together many a congenial soul and many a kindred spirit, drawing more closely round each heart the bonds of love. H ow our hearts will beat and what emotions will overcome us, when in after life we see some brother bearing the badge. W hat hallowed recollections will endear us to our stately edifice. Masonry and Odd-Fellowship have their friends and supporters. Let our beloved fraternity have its lovers. H ow often in after days, when the spirit, panting for the waters of peace, enduring suffering and want, is well nigh ready to give up in despair, will a brother Beta administer consolation and call to the mind recollections of far different scenes. Let every brother o f the mystic tie repose implicit confidence in his brethren, that by a closer union of hearts we may make life more sweet.”

Woods became a lawyer, state representative and speaker of the Ohio house, colonel of the Seventy-sixth Ohio Volunteers, a United States circuit judge and, finally, an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court; but he never lost his love for the fraternity to which he pledged his fealty in youth. This volume of B e t a L o r e seeks to magnify the sentiment of the fra ternity, as distinguished from its history. The latter was outlined a year ago in The Beta Book. The material which follows has been collected through many years. Some of the information came first hand from illustrious brothers like “ Pater” Knox, M ajor Ransom, Charles J. Seaman, William Raimond Baird, John Hogarth Lozier and other Betas who were strongly marked by sentiment for the fraternity while they were living; or from living fountains like W illis O. Robb, John Calvin Hanna and George Chandler; or from other sources of inspiration and recollection. The same idea re mains in the fraternity, even though the organization has changed in outward appearance as the years have hurried by. Ope of the earliest of the songs is still popular: “ Here we meet in joys fraternal, meet to cheer our brothers on; Let us then, with hearts united, speed the hours with joyous song Looking forward to the future, far its dazzling prospects try, And again in hearty friendship pledge to Beta Theta Pi.” F r a n c is W . S h epard so n

THE FOUNDATIONS ★

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“Friendship gave our order birth, True, and lasting as the earth, Strong devotion to our motto gave us life.” ★

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“ Believing everything which tends to the development of intellect and the refinement of feeling, the promotion of confidence, and the closer union of kindred hearts to be in the highest degree beneficial to society; and trusting that we shall in some degree be able, to accomplish these ends, we form ourselves into an association............” (Preamble to the First Consti tution, 1839) ★ ★ ★ “ The leading motive of uniting a few choice spirits in closer bonds for improvement in literary exercises, and the cultivation of social life, but chiefly the latter, was probably the principal raison d’ etre of the new or ganization. Mutual support and assistance, absolute faith and confidence in each other, and progress in knowledge and scholarship, were the funda mental ideas on which we built. With a view to the cultivation of intimate social relations it was, for instance, originally provided that no more than nine members should at one time be in attendance at the same college; and, as an illustration of the closeness of the tie which was to bind us, the original obligation taken by the neophyte pledged him to his brothers in the order, that ‘their friends should be his friends, and their enemies his enemies.’ But at a very early day, the introduction of a more Christian element into the organization led to a modification of this rather heathenish provision. The number nine, too, was soon dropped, leaving the order free to select good fellows wherever and in what number it might find them, and the three stars were no longer indicative of the limited membership (as the root of the mysterious nine) but simply remained as the heavenly represen tatives of the three words of the order.” ( J o h n R e i l y K n o x ) ★ ★

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“ Believing the objects of this association to be not only attainable but in the greatest possible degree desirable, we hail with joy and gratitude the opportunity afforded us of giving our co-operation in attempting to bring about such a happy state o f things as was doubtless anticipated by the founders of the Beta Theta Pi. Composed, as this society unquestionably must be, of those who are ambitious of moral and mental culture, there is nothing which can possibly be better calculated to prepare us for future usefulness than that which tends to cultivate the social virtues and call into action all the finer feelings of the soul. And such we believe to be the character and object o f the Beta Theta Pi.” ( R i p l e y C. H o f f m a n , Ohio, November 17, 1841)

TH E FOUNDATIONS

“ No great measure of political or other nature, calculated to excite vulgar admiration, stands forth as the object o f our common effort, as a central attraction to bind us together. But common pursuits and aspira tions engender congenial sympathies, and there is a homogeneous attraction between kindred minds sufficiently strong to unite us firmly. W e sail not by a rugged rocky landmark rising to our view but by the mild light of three guiding stars.” (A . W . H e n d r i c k s , Jefferson, September 13, 1842) ★

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Ever keeping it in mind that gold tried seven times in the fire is there fore more pure, we have essayed by fair and honorable means to augment the intellectual and moral wealth of our chapter by addition only of those, who, firm and resolute in their own decisions, have had the courage and independence to withstand the darts with which contention has assailed them and judging for themselves of the principles, character, deportment, and station of our members, have freely and cordially united with us in the indissoluble bonds of our beloved brotherhood. Hoping that the bless ing and beneficence of an overruling Providence may attend us so long as we act in accordance with the first principles of humanity, love, and duty, we thus, with implicit confidence in each other, commence and trust to continue our operations. (Michigan Chapter minutes, November 13, 1845) ★

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“ W e have had several applications for membership, but we are very careful in our selection, and invariably refuse those whose characters we do not know perfectly well. W e cannot be too careful, as we expect to partake of the honor and share in the disgrace of each individual mem ber.” (K . M . M u r c h i s o n , North Carolina, October 11, 1852) ★ ★

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“ It . . . . shall have for its objects the promotion of moral and social culture of its members, the establishment of confidence and friendly rela tions between the universities of the United States, in securing unity of action and sympathy in matters of common interest between them, and the building up of a fraternity that recognizes mutual assistance in the honorable labors and aspirations of life, devotion to the cultivation of the intellect, unsullied friendship, and unfaltering fidelity, as objects worthy the highest aim and purpose of associated effort.” (Constitution of Beta Theta Pi) ★

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“ Beta Theta Pi is prospering, and I rejoice. I hope they may ever keep the standard high and press on with a calm, silent, and unconquerable energy. Based upon no unjust principle; formed for noble purposes; all that is necessary to secure complete success is an unflinching determina tion to pursue steadily the track in which we started.” ( D a v i d L i n t o n to J o h n R e i l y K n o x , January 1, 1840)

BETA LO RE Chapter I — Interpretations

THE MIRACLE OF BROTHERHOOD W

il l ia m

G raves,

Ohio State ’93

Ages ago, while yet the world was young, there lived a great king, and the king had a son. Now this prince was young and handsome and gentle and brave, as all princes in tales should be; but he was not happy, for the times were troublous, and besides he was lonely in his father’s court. Then the king went to war with another king, and one day it happened that the two armies lay over against each other ready for battle. Then while they waited, out from the ranks of the enemy there came a great hero, and up and down he walked, clanging his sword on his shield and derisively daring any single opponent to do fight with him: just as Greek A ja x used to dare to combat the valiant heroes of towered Troy. And as the king and his son looked on from their tent door they saw for long no soldier of theirs who would venture his life ; until at last there was a stir in the ranks and forth stepped a mere lad, swordless and with no piece of armor on him. He was good to look at, lithe and muscular and with red, boyish cheeks. But he was evidently a peasant lad, and nobody knew him or had seen him before. So he strode to the other side and his foe came to meet him. It was a short fight, and I need not tell of it, but the lad won and came back with the bloody head of his challenger, cut off with the slain hero’s own sword. Straight up to the monarch’s tent he brought it and laid it at his feet, his own face aflame at standing before the king, shy, country-bred lad that he was. “ Who are you?” the ruler said; and as the boy raised his head to answer, he looked into the eyes of the young prince, standing straight and beautiful in his golden armor by his father’s side. What he saw in those eyes I cannot tell y o u ; but this is what the story says: “And it came to pass that when he had made an end o f speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul o f David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.”

And yet the two were utter strangers; and one was a prince, the other a peasant. Do you ask me how it came about? I do not know. I could as soon tell you what sends a bobolink into the sky on a sunny May morning, to drop earthward again amid the golden bells of his own chiming song. But this is tru e: that the subtle thing which made David and Jonathan love each other makes possible the existence of such a fraternity as the one we all joy to call our ow n : it is the miracle of brother hood.

B ETA LORE I am filled with amazement every time I stop to think what fraternity life really stands for. Incredible as it appears, the existence of the frater nity principle means that without any tangible object in view, but dependent solely upon that most delicate and sensitive tie that makes men delight in each other, there has been founded and is being maintained a widely extended and intricate organization that touches intimately the lives of thousands of men who stand for the very highest culture and intelligence; it means that these men, coming together singly or in numbers, shall in stantly be admitted to each other’s friendship and confidence; it means that college students, in the years when tempers are hottest and wills strongest, shall meet not only in the occasional manner common to other fraternal societies, but shall be tried by daily and hourly contact and asso ciation with their fellows, and shall undergo even that supremest test of friendship which is involved in living together; it means that young men shall thrill at the magic touch of hands clasped in the grip, and that old men shall live their lost youth over again at the flash of a jeweled badge. A ll those ordinary natural barriers that keep men apart inevitably— lack of acquaintance, differences in taste, social and sectional distinctions— these in the presence of the spirit of brotherhood are as though they had never been. Is it too much to call it a miracle? I suppose every man feels that these things are true of his fraternity. I do not know. But this I am sure of, that every Beta feels them true in a peculiar and salient way of his own association. As the years continue to widen the gulf between me and my active college days, I become more and more persuaded that in Beta Theta Pi, as in no single one of our kindred fraternities, there is a tenderness of appreciation for the fraternity spirit, a loyalty of regard for the fraternity ideals, and a strength of en durance in the fraternity sentiment. I have yet to hear from a Beta what I heard from a member of another great brotherhood who could not be sure of his fraternity’s name, or from a second, only the other day, who told me he had not heard or thought fraternity for so long that he hardly knew what the word meant. Year after year I find a new and fresh interest in watching the oncom ing wave of young life as it sweeps in and breaks on the university shore. They come from everywhere, these nameless throngs; some from homes made beautiful with the refinements of culture and luxury, some from the workaday life of “ the average man” ; some are rich and some are poor, some wise and old in what the world has to teach, some with every least thing to learn. On equal terms they find themselves at this democratic college of ours, with a fair field and no favors, and all alike in one thing, an absolute ignorance on the vital point— how to get in ! It seems a simple thing to follow the directions you had read so many times even before you came, but there are so many difficulties you had not counted upon. I need not describe the feeling to any of you. Hours slip away and you are still “ out” ; everyone except yourself seems to know where to go and what to do; you are sick of strange faces and could heartily wish yourself away from it all and back in your home town, and then up comes a kind-faced fellow who tells you his name, takes you in hand, guides you from room to room, talks for you to the worried and weary professors who have been tired out of their natural amiability,

T H E M IR A C L E O F B R O T H E R H O O D helps you to arrange your troublesome recitation schedule, and presently comforts you with the assurance that now you are all right. You do not know what to make of him, you have never seen him before; but you accept his service in a grateful if dazed manner and keep wondering how he happened to run up against you. Though I live to be old, I shall never be thankful enough to the good-natured sophomore who reached me as I sank for the third time beneath the waves of despair and pulled me safely out upon the solid banks of a happy matriculation. I wondered at him for several days before I began to see things.

W IL L IA M

L. G R A V E S , Ohio State â&#x20AC;&#x2122;93

The next morning by some curious accident your blessed helper of the day before runs across you again, and presently you find yourself being introduced to numbers of pleasant fellows, who all seem to take a strange interest in you and show it by asking the very same questions. But you smile patiently and try not to mind repeating for the twentieth time that you have a pleasant room and that you have your work all arranged and that you know that you will like it at college. And somehow, as time goes on, you find yourself meeting these same men wherever you happen to be, and then one happy morning, it may be after days or weeks or even months of the new life, you are taken aside mysteriously and made aware

BE TA LORE

that twenty men, extremely hard to please, tenderly proud of their asso ciation and jealous of its future, entirely select and, in the language of the secretary to his magazine editor, “ easily in the lead of all-fraternity rivals,” have come to the remarkable conclusion that you are worthy to be made one o f them. You had guessed it before, or at least you had hoped it, but you do not see how it came about, you cannot understand what they have seen in you or why they want you. Dear boy, of course not. It is the miracle of brotherhood! And then you go in! And when it is over somebody pins a little shin ing badge on you and all these fellows whom you admire so tremendously crowd around and lovingly give you the new grip, and you don’t know what to say, only you are so happy you could cry for joy. And you feel that with these fellows to back you, you could front the whole world without fear. But it is not until you have been in the chapter a while that you begin to appreciate what your new brother will really do for you. Shall I tell you some of the things? He will smoke your best tobacco with a self-sacrifice that brings tears to your eyes. He will wear your number seven tennis shoes on his eight-and-a-half feet; indeed the social com munism induced by chapter house life would put that of a Shaker settle ment to shame. The other day, as I ascended the veranda steps, I met one coming down in an inflamed sweater, with a tennis racket in one hand, a water bottle in the other, and his mouth full of crackers. I could not resist. “ Whose sweater is that?” I grinned. “ The Duke’s,” he answered comfortably. “ Whose racket have you?” “ Smitty’s.” “ W here did you get those shoes?” “ They’re Toughey’s.” “ Is that your cap?” “ No, it’s Nob’s. W hat’s the matter with you anyhow?” as he started for the court. “ Have you got on anything of your own?” I jibed. “ Not much. W h y?” And he disappeared. W hy, indeed! I did not say why, but inwardly I was roaring with Homeric laughter. W hat other man’s clothes would you calmly and with impunity appropriate save your fraternity brother’s? And you know he does not mind it, because he loves you. Indeed, he will take your own whenever he needs them. This, too, is the miracle of brotherhood! And there are other things your brother will do for you. He will give you a loving and. abominable nickname that will stick to you for life and follow you into the tomb; if you have too much self-esteem he will prob ably reduce it by a course of vigorous and effective “kidding” ; if you have too little, he will encourage it by showing you how a man with proper selfrespect should carry him self; he will take dances with the out-of-town girl you bring to the hop, and he will lend you money when your check does not come— if he has any. He may not often praise you to your face, but rest assured he does it behind your back; he will take pride in your victories and console you in your defeats.

TH E M IRACLE OF BROTHERHOOD

And then, one sunny June morning, you wake up at home in your own bed, the good old bed that you have scarcely lain in during four years, and it begins to dawn on you that the whole thing is over and that you are out of it. You do not like to think that the next time you go back you will find another fellow cutting his initials and his fraternity monogram on the arm of your chair in the history class; it grieves you to know that hereafter it can never be a heart-breaking affair, even if your football team does lose a gam e; you are going to miss the influence of all those men who, despite their faults, tried to do you good during your stay. Oh, there are hosts of things to regret. But this I venture, that the one loss over which your heart will ache most will be the loss of “ the boys.” Noth ing can take the place of that, and you will find with me that, -in some one else’s words, “ the influences most potent and helpful and sweetest to remember” all go back to “ the touch of arm on arm on the college campus, the simmerings of thought and heart at the hearthstone of a friend.” And when you come to reckon up what your college life has given you, I think you will not take your chiefest delight in the knowledge that you can read Horace at sight, or that you can design a bridge or install an electrical railway, or that you know the history of the coinage system. I think you will joy in the recollection of the Beta yell. It is a good yell. To the barb it is no more than the sound of a mastiff baying the moon; but we who have sent it up a thousand times to the midnight stars know what it means, and no one else does. And I think that in those coming days your hearts will thrill, as mine always does, at the memory of “ Gemma Nostra.” Perhaps we sang it with out being able to translate all its good old Latin words, but it was just as dear as though we had sung it in classical English, and it was the one song of which we never grew weary. From' the ends of the earth that song would draw back any true Beta to his chapter hall and restore for him the pressure of an arm around his shoulder, the sound of rough boyish voices, and the look of honest eyes. And then your badge! Perhaps it is a sparkling mass of diamonds; perhaps it is a plain gold shield— it’s all one in the things it stands for. A s years slip away this will be the one tangible link to bind you to the old days, and a glance at its wreath and stars will bring those days to you as swiftly as ever Aladdin brought the Genie of the Lamp. This is what ought to mean most to you. And it is because I take my fraternity seriously that I would deny any man the right to wear that badge who does not adequately appreciate the simple, but absolutely vital things it represents and does not do his very best to live them out in his life. If we have been crowned with the gift of brotherhood in any good fraternity, we ought to be glad, and if that brotherhood is in Beta Theta Pi, we ought to be glad a thousand-fold more. There is none greater or better, none that has been honored in so many magnificent men, none whose standards of truth and honor have been set higher, none in which the young hearts that keep its life blood aflow beat more in tune with honesty and fidelity and manliness, none where the friendships it fosters are more certainly wrought not of “ wine and dreams, but of the tough fibers of the human heart.” If I am glad of any one thing this night, it is that for me the miracle of brotherhood has come to pass, and if I am proud of anything, it is that the badge on my breast is a Beta badge.

THE ABIDING VALUES “ — the things which are seen arc temporal; but the things which are not seen arc eternal.” B

dward

rown,

D.D., Hanover ’73

General Secretary of Beta Theta Pi, 1878-1881 Early in March, 1924, I received from Francis W . Shepardson, President of Beta Theta Pi, a copy of a letter which I understand was sent to a selected group of members of the fraternity with the purpose of gathering expres sions of opinion regarding the real fundamentals of Beta Theta Pi. In this letter were the following paragraphs, a sort of thesis outline: “ Dan M cCleary of the Miami Chapter, back in 1843, contended that the original design of Beta Theta Pi ‘was that we should act upon ourselves and not upon society.’ In a number of cases, then, the existence of chapters and the personnel of membership were kept absolutely secret. Chapters were small and members were chosen with deliberation and after close scrutiny. “ This secrecy being attacked, fraternities were forced to defend themselves by justifying their existence as of real benefit not only to their members but also to the college community. T hey began to have halls for meeting places, to print lists of members in college annuals, to proclaim publicly their objects and their ideals. They were tolerated but not recognized. Chapters increased in size. “ The third stage is the present. Fraternities are generally recognized. They are used in college administration. Their members are recorded in the dean’s office. They occupy and own chapter houses, ours having a valuation of over $2,000,000. Chapters are large, ours averaging about thirty-five in membership. The fraternity of 1924 is fa r removed in character from the association founded by ‘the boys of ’39.' W e shall change still more as the years go by. Is it still Beta Theta Pi ? W hat are the real values in our fraternity? “T o help us realize and conserve these values, won’t you please write me a letter indicating what you count most valuable in your personal fraternity experience? In a constantly changing college and fraternity life, what above all else should we seek to preserve? W e have faith in the future of our fraternity, but we must cherish the fundamentals.”

It was in answer to this letter that I wrote what follow s: I was keenly interested in your statement of the various periods of growth and develop ment found in the history of our fraternity from the days of the founders down to the present. It seems to me that statement of periodicity in our history is correct, and well set forth. The periods are these: I. The Period of Secrecy, II. The Period of Toleration, III. The Period of Recognition. In order that I may better get at what I desire afterward to say, let me first make some observations on these periods of history taken altogether. First, they pertain all to external relations. That is true even of the first, the period of secrecy. The boys, some of them at least, wanted the fraternity to exist without the knowledge of the colleges and the outside world. But that is merely a formal and external matter. It is a manner of existence external to the fraternity itself. It might be good and be either secret or open. The same thing is true respecting the other periods. They express a relation of the fraternity to the colleges and through them a relation to general society.

THE ABIDING VALU ES

The second observation 011 this run of things from period to period is that it is natural, perhaps inevitable. It is natural for boys, and even for men, to begin movements and enterprises with great secrecy. It seems to flatter their sense o f invention and magnify their sense of possession. But, called upon to justify themselves, they are apt to find they have not so much beyond the possessions of the world of men as they supposed. Their posses sions are then tolerated and recognized. M y third remark is that none of these changes in our fraternity, from period to period, touch at all the vital things of our Association. They do not affect the principles and powers which give life. Now then, having dealt with those circumstances and outward changes in the more than eighty years of our frater nity life, I turn to the principles of its inward being to find the real and perma nent values. First of all, it is an affinity. It is a band of youth drawn together because they are congenial. There is an attrac tion of affinity. There are millions of youth in this country. But these mil lions do not go to the colleges and uni versities of the land. But hundreds of thousands of these youth do go. Gen erally speaking, they are drawn thither by something in them which is wanting E D W A R D J. B R O W N , Hanover 73 in the millions. A great selection is made here on the basis of affinity— affinity for what is done in the institutions of higher learning. This it is which makes the spirit and life of the great throbbing, surging world of the colleges. But not all of these youths make Betas. There must be another selection on the basis of another affinity, a far deeper and more intimate quality of the soul. That quality is a principle and bond of friendship. There is thus in these youths— few in any institution of learning— a deeper affinity which is worthy of the endearing term of brotherhood. In the great common wealth of letters, at its outlying centers in the colleges and universities of the land, there is a band of youth who have for each other a deep and noble affinity that is worthy of the name of the fraternity, of Beta Theta Pi. Like seeks like. They recognize each other and a Beta chapter is born. How does this come about? Well, how do the deepest and noblest unions of life come about? There is something about these unions that defies analysis. But nothing is more certain than that they exist and that they thus come about. It is this that holds. It is down there that the real and permanent values of Beta Theta Pi are to be found. It is, as to surroundings, in the realm of the commonwealth of letters. Within this realm, it is in the depth of the human heart for fraternity, for brotherhood pure and ennobling. In that powerful sketch of human life by Ian Maclaren, Beside the Bon

BETA LORE

nie Briar Bush, there is a wonderful scene. The setting is in an upper room, manifestly a room in the dwelling of the humble and toiling. Marget Howe is distributing the bequests of her scholar son. - Two university friends of Gordie Howe have come down from Edinburgh to be present at the funeral of that son. One is Ludovic Gordon, scion of a noble Scotch house. The other is Ronald Maclean from a fishing village, the son of a fisherman: “ Maister Gordon,” said M arget, “this is George’s Homer, and he bade me tell you that he coonted yir freendship ain o’ the gifts o’ God.” F o r a brief space Gordon was silent, and, when he spoke, his voice sounded strange in that room. “Y o u r son was the finest scholar of my time, and a very perfect gentleman. He was also my true friend, and I pray God to console his mother.” And Gordon bowed low over M arget’s worn hand as if she had been a queen. M arget lifted Plato, and it seemed to me that day as if the dignity of our Lady of Sorrows had fallen upon her. “ This is the buik George chose for you, Maister Maclean, for he aye said to me ye hed been a prophet and shown him mony deep things.” T he tears sprang to the Celt’s eyes. “It wass like him to make all others better than him self,” with the soft, sad, H igh land accent, “and a proud woman you are to hef been his mother.”

There was a place and a call for a chapter of Beta Theta Pi. The roll, to begin with, would read, George Howe, Ludovic Gordon, Ronald Maclean, the plowmten’s son, the noble’s descendant, the fisherman’s boy. How did they,iget together at the university? By a deep and strong affinity. That is all that we can say. There is something which cannot be added t o ; neither can it be reduced. It can’t be changed; but abides while life lasts, and beywid. ‘ There are the real “ values” of Beta Theta Pi. There it is in its simplicity and primitive quality. Halls, chapter-houses, paraphernalia do not help it much. These may hinder it. Strip off all accessories and you may still have Beta Theta Pi and all of it in its real values.

TH E IDEAL FR A TE R N ITY

THE IDEAL FRATERNITY W

il l ia m

prague,

Denison

’81

Ideals exist in the mind only and are seldom, if ever, realized. They exist as mental pictures, as heart-longings and as soul aspirations. Like the mocking ignis fatuus they dance before the eyes of the tired traveler, ever beckoning him on, yet ever receding and eluding his grasp. While ideals are seldom realized, they serve a great purpose in men’s lives as a spur to their endeavor, as a whip to their flagging spirits, as a stimulus to their fainting courage. Ideals change. They change with environment. The ideal of the citybred man is not that of the country-bred; that of the poor not that of the rich; that of the educated not that of the ignorant; that of the sensual not that of the spiritual. They change with the individual’s experi ence. The momentary wish of the boy gives place to the aspirations of youth, and these disappear in the hopes of young manhood, which, in turn, give way to the more sober visions of middle and old age. Thus the ideal of the little boy is to be a fireman and ride the engine with its clanging bells and prancing steeds. The ideal of the older boy is to be a smart young fellow who cuts a wide swath in college and society. The ideal of the young, business man is to command men and money and rule among his fel lows. The ideal of the middle-aged is to have a comfortable home re moved from the turmoil and strife, and a decent competency, while that of the aged is to have a quiet cor ner with a good book, a good com W IL L IA M C. S P R A G U E , Denison ’81 panion, loving grandchildren, free dom from want, and a peaceful death. The ideal fraternity! What is it? Suppose we each define it. Into the definition of each will enter something of his own fraternity life. The composite of our separate definitions would prove an interesting exhibit. You, my younger brother, who have only just entered upon your fra ternity life will present, I fear, a sorry definition; for to you fraternity is something yet to learn. You, my.older brother, who this year will leave college halls for the greater school of active life, will have a definition more robust and hearty; for you have fed upon the traditions of the elders and lived heart to heart with the fraters— to you fraternity has come al ready to mean something earnest. You, my brothers on whose heads the

BETA LORE

gray is just starting, will give a richer definition than can these; for the transforming, refining influences of a quarter of a century at the shrine of W ooglin have molded for you an ideal sweeter and better than any boyish imaginations conceived. You, brothers of the silver and the gray, loved for your virtues and your faithfulness— you will give us a defini tion that comes from a mind of wisdom and heart of love. Born of long experience and tried in the crucible of time, your ideal fraternity will be something strange and marvelous to the boys. To the boys, fraternity is good fellowship and good times— hearty, jovial good fellows and days and nights of song and story, and feats and laughter; while to the aged alumnus, it is a heart full of memories— faces long gone from earth, voices now never heard, songs now never sung, friendships that have endured through calm and storm, sympathy and encouragement that stretch through long years of pain and labor, the continued love of brothers who have grown old by your side, and last but not least, the ardent affec tion, the real veneration of succeeding generations of Beta boys. The ideal fraternity bears a semblance to the ideal home, where mutual respect and love is the rule; where each seeks the good of the other; where no discord reigns; where the aged. sit in the place of honor, in the easiest chair, in the coziest corner; where intercourse of mind and heart is free, and God rules over all. The ideal fraternity should enrich and ennoble the m an; it should weave a golden thread of sentiment in his life ; strengthening at the same time that it beautifies. Ideal fraternity? You have its roots here, you have its trunk here, its branches are here, aye, and its glorious foliage and fruitage are here. Birds make merry in its branches, prospering breezes make music ’mid its leaves, and under its shade the brothers of the mystic tie, old and young, from far and near, love to meet in ideal fraternity. May Wooglin cause his face to shine upon you forever! (A n initiation banquet response to the toast, “ The Ideal Fraternity” ).

TH E SCEN T O F TH E RO SES

THE SCENT OF THE ROSES H

enry

A. W

il l ia m s,

Wittenberg

’ 85

Prospect and retrospect— looking forward and looking backward— make up much of the sum of human thought and reflection. Fancy and memory, twin architects of the mind, weave into the warp and woof of the creations of the intellect the brighter threads of their texture, and thus enliven the dull colors of commonplace mental operations. Youth, with its hopes, its aspirations, its ambitions, its anticipations so brilliant and so certain, with its boundless confidence in self, builds in contemplation, out of airy nothings, structures of most wondrous scope and dimension. The future spreads widely before it and promises so much; the past seems so meager and possesses so little; the present by comparison is so fleeting and unprofitable. It is the time for great possibilities. The despairing experience of failure, of procrastination, of hope long deferred, of disillusion, of plans “ gang aft a-gley,” has not as yet blunted the keen zest for the conflict. Everything seems open. Youth distrusts no am buscade, no trap, or finesse. Uncertainty is not considered. One has but to strive, to conquer; but to undertake, to achieve. The point which was invisible yesterday is the goal of today, and will be the starting point of tomorrow. So, conversely, old age, nearing the finish, moves forward with reluctant step, and keeps his vision fixed upon the past. The imaginings of youth are not more roseate than are the pictures which memory conjures up with her magic wand: “ Her geese are always swans.” The heart-burnings, the defeats, the disappointments, the struggles, the victories only half achieved, the prizes oft times won too late to be of advantage or of lasting value, are all effaced or retouched by the softening hand of time, and the canvas contains no tints that are not harmoniously blended; there is no aspect of the portraiture that is not pleasing, restful, and comforting. The friends of long ago reappear with none but their best features preserved— their baser qualities have all disappeared in the crucible of the passing years. In the defective light of reminiscence, always caught at the angle where it shows deep and beautiful colors, the failure, the over throw, the confusion of former years present at times to the vision of de clining age the picture of triumph, of successful achievement, and over powering success— “ Let fate do her worst, there are relics of joy, Bright dreams of the past, which she cannot destroy, W hich come in the night-time of sorrow and care, And bring back the features which jo y used to share.”

Youth and age— anticipation and remembrance— there are times when these two meet, when their counter-currents mingle in a common stream, when hope and memory cluster around the same center. This most fre quently happens when both are actuated by a high devotion to a noble and enduring purpose; when the endeavor of youth and the reminiscence of age have the same ideal— the same object of contemplation and worship. Such gatherings as this are the visible manifestations of this com munion. Here the enthusiasm of the novitiate and the sobriety of the

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sage do common homage to a common shrine of devotion. Here at this festal board, dedicated primarily to the functions and habits of youth, the silver grays are always the most honored guests. Amid the underclassmen, with the calls and the college yells and the esprit de corps of our several classes, we stand uncovered in the presence of those men who, by their loyalty and devotion, made it possible for our fraternity to become great, and who during all these years have kept their hearts and their souls as young as the youngest. A t the summit of such lives, it is well to look back. W ith such years to review, the contemplation must be sweet indeed. When the original needs no retouching, when the mystic art of memory needs not to heighten the colors but only to reproduce the pristine tints, the recollection of the past is a rich treasure-house indeed. The beauty of such lives and such memories is that much of their richness passes by con tact into the lives of others. B y association we may absorb in part, as does the steel from the magnet, something of the inner force which these great souls possess. Herein lies the secret of the success of the fraternity. The flood of recollection thus- set in force brings always with it the inspiration of the lives and examples Of our leaders, and suggests that what they have be come, we may also hope to be. The days spent together in fraternal converse have a double pleasure when recalled jointly with th e ' f riend of former days. W e live again the pleasures of the past, and, the dark spots are made of light or obliterated in our treasured memories.. “ Long, long be my heart with such memories filled ! Like the vase in which roses have once been distilled— You may break, you may shatter the vase if you w ill; But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.” ( A reunion banquet speech)

FR A TE R N ITY

FRATERNITY W

il l ia m

G raves,

Ohio State ’93

In lost Arcadian days, Ere grief beset the young world’s sylvan ways, What was the rarest thing The bright gods brought from their far wandering To win man’s grateful praise? Sweet was the boon of Spring— O f orchard boughs where foamy blossoms cling, O f clear skies deep and blue With circling swallows ever slanting through On wild, ecstatic wing.

B IL L Y G R A V E S

A godlike gift the thrush, Whose lyric voice greets the young morning’s flush From a glad golden throat, And with the fading day, in tender note Flutes through the twilight hush. Joyous a tale well told O f war and love, and witching legends old Long come from oversea To make still poppied summer hours flee And nights of firelit cold.

BETA LORE Song was a largess rare, And clang of strings upon the throbbing air; A ll music’s poignancy, Keen-sounding in the bugle’s battle glee O r chanted in a prayer. Blessed the gift of toil, The joy of winning earth’s eternal spoil; T o bind the sheaves, to hew The towering pine and thrust the ploughshare through The odorous, teeming soil. Ah, let our strivings end! When all is done, of boons the gods may send To us who come and go, There yet remains to make life gleam and glow This chiefest gift— a friend. To one, joy may betide: But treads a chosen comrade at our side, Lo, straight a fairer May, And bird and song and tale, and toil’s long day Hold sweetness multiplied. Hail then, fraternity, Within whose gates no two strangers b e ! Here blooms the magic rose, And all who walk this scented garden-close Have brotherhood in fee. Here burns love’s altar-flame; Beside it youth, eternally the same; For when love’s self appears, Like cast-off mantle drop the cumbering years And age is but a name. And distance is but thought When men have found what they have always sought; See now, I take your hand— And in the smile of this enchanted land A thousand miles are nought! W e meet, and straight we p a rt! But we are touched by some sweet, subtle art, And go we east or west, The thrill of friendship stirs within each breast And binds us heart to heart.

FR A TE R N ITY Does faith too swiftly run That sees in brotherhood the spell begun Across wide lands to reach, To draw league-sundered cities each to each And keep a nation one? Brother, look up with m e! O â&#x20AC;&#x2122;erhead the Triad Stars shine tremblingly; With Beta roses wound, The Mystic Circle drops its gleaming round From sea to flashing sea! (A Convention Poem, Lakewood, New York, 1901)

BETA LORE

MOTHER OF MEN

K E N N E T H R O G E R S , Syracuse ’ 17

Sentiment has ever made Beta Theta Pi feminine. The analogies are many. “ Alma M ater” is the most familiar; the college counted as a nourish ing mother. Even a battleship is “ she” to the sailor. It is the feminine which men ever love most. The country, the church| the college, the cruiser, the chapter— they always are feminine. David Hastings Moore, Ohio, ’60, was a virile being, a daring lieutenantcolonel of the 125th Ohio Volunteers in the Civil War, a bishop of the Methodist-Episcopal Church, an editor, a college president. He was a fighter; but of Beta Theta Pi he wrote, to the tune of “ Ellen Bayne” : “ O ur bride forever take we tonight, Nothing can sever faith which we plight. Smiles of the guileful, hate o f the base, Sneers of the scornful, offers of place. “ Proud of thy beauty, Beta our bride, Find we our duty, close to thy side. Light of thy diamond, eastward or west, Shows in our bosoms, Beta loved best.

M O T H E R O F M EN

Chorus “Wooglin, thou our nuptials se a l; Beta’s ours for woe or weal. Bells proclaim with merry peal, Beta our bride!”

So, in using the phrase,., “ Mother of men,” Kenneth Rogers, Syracuse, ’ i j , found abundant precedent, as he started Betas of all the years marching along in song. There was a good argument made for “ Father of men,” as more virile, as better suited to a masculine organization. The substitution actually was made in the songbook. But Starr Cooper, Yale, ’08, gives testimony which shows clearly that, now that Kenneth Rogers is dead, his own choice, “ Mother of men,” must be retained and perpetuated, because there was a bit of sentiment associated with it. There were some Yale Betas, Cooper among them, who took a lively interest in the decision Rogers was to make regarding the college he was to attend. A number of institu tions were considered, and, after he had decided on Syracuse, he frequently had conferences with his Yale friends, particularly Cooper. On one occasion he asked the latter if, in his opinion, there would be any objection from the Yale standpoint to the inclusion in a Beta song upon which he was working of the Yale phrase “mother of men,” taken from the fine Yale song: M O TH ER OF M EN “ Mother of Men, grown strong in giving, Honor to them thy lights have le d ; Rich in the toil of thousands living, Proud of the deeds of thousands dead. W e who have felt thy pow’r and known thee, W e in whose work thy gifts avail, H igh in our hearts enshrined, enthrone thee, Mother of Men, Old Yale. “ Spirit of Youth, alive, unchanging, Under whose feet the years are cast H eir to an ageless empire, ranging O ver the future and the p a st; Thee, whom our fathers loved before us, Thee, whom our sons unborn shall hail, Praise we today in sturdy chorus, Mother of Men, Old Y ale.”

Being assured that there would be no objection to his use of the words, Rogers incorporated them in his ringing chorus, “ Singing again, ‘Mother of Men’ H ail to thee ! Beta Theta P i !”

So to Yale, in sentiment, the fraternity owes the words all Betas love to sing. Back there “ in the old porch chairs” one finds the feminine again in the popular song of Horace Lozier, Chicago, ’94: “ There’s the ‘absent member’— She fo r whom you pine; There’s fair Beta— Beta, Yours and mine.”

In marching chorus, in reminiscent and sentimental mood, or out on the field of the cloth of gold where men encounter men, the idea has been the

BETA LORE

same in Beta hearts. Bishop Moore expressed it in another song with a suggestion of knighthood: “ Thou art fairer, dear Beta, than earth knows beside, For thee, and thee only, life ’s tourney we rid e ; The trophies w e’ve won at thy feet we now lay, And our triumph complete by thy favor today.”

THE MEANING OF BETA TH ETA PI Being the closing remarks of Samuel Shaw Parks, ’86, toastmaster, thirty-second annual initiation and banquet, Beta Iota of Beta Theta Pi, Amherst, Massachusetts, November 13, 1914. Now a solemn word in parting, M ay we look beyond the eating O f the good things set before us, Look and catch the deeper meaning O f this banqueting and talking. Life, at best, is but a passing, But a journey to a country Whereof we know not the boundaries, But a state of preparation For existence in that country. W e believe they make the better Pilgrims to that unknown country, Have a better preparation For the life in that far country, Who, in this life, strive to render Unto everyone his just due, And who do their best to follow The command laid on each brother, “ Bear ye one another’s burdens A s yourself, so love your neighbor.” So, to help us bear the burden And to make the burden lighter And to help us find our neighbor Whom we might love as a brother, Once upon a time a dreamer Dreamed a dream and saw a vision, (Pater Knox we love to call him Father of each loyal Beta.) Once upon a time, a way back In a year removed from this one B y a portion of a hundred Years that’s measured by three-quarters, Time whereof no living person Has a memory that can span it, Pater Knox, the Beta founder,

T H E M E A N IN G O F B E T A T H E T A PI Dreamed a dream and saw a vision, Saw three stars and diamond gleaming Saw three mystic Grecian letters Saw a laurel wreath above them Resting on the somber background O f a shield. Such was the vision. And as Joseph in the olden Time we read of in the Scriptures W as enabled to interpret Hidden meanings of his visions, So our Pater Knox was able, Able to translate the meaning, Meaning of his wonder vision. And he summoned others to him, Youth of strength and earnest purpose Told them all about his vision, Told them all the hidden meaning O f the shield and what it stands for, Told them all about the diamond, Laurel wreath and stars refulgent And the mystic Grecian letters. Told them that content and blessing And approval of his conscience Would be sure to come to every Man who took the vows and kept them And who worthily wore the emblem, W ore the badge and bore the name of, Bore the name of Beta Theta Pi, and followed all its teachings. And the band of faithful Brothers, Whom the seer of the vision Gathered round him to relate it, Caught the spirit and the lesson Caught the vision’s inspiration Swore allegiance to each other And became a band of brothers Whom the heart can e’er depend on. Then they gathered others to them Youth of faith and sacred honor Showed them how to eat the canine, Told them all about Old Wooglin, Wooglin with his eye unsleeping Watching every Beta brother Watching, smiling on each brother Whom he sees make firm endeavor To uphold the name of Beta In the forefront of life’s battle. So this band of small beginning

BETA LORE Grew and spread and waxed in number Till throughout our land of freedom Hardly town so unimportant Can be found, but what has numbered In its useful population One or more of Beta brothers. Now whenever tried and true men Betas as are here assembled Meet together at a banquet, Like this feast which we have eaten, W e enjoy this passing moment And the flow of wit and banter. But, far better than the feasting Better far than wit and humor, Is the drawing close together Is the tugging at the heart strings, Is the fellowship, unslipping Which will help us on our journey To that undiscovered country, From whose boundaries no traveller E ’er returns to tell the story. M ay this Beta trust and friendship Ever bind us close together Till we leave our earthly stations Till we go from life and friendship, One by one as we are called hence, “ In the glory of the sunset In the purple mists of evening, To the region of the home wind O f the Northwest wind, Keewaydin To the Islands of the Blessed To the kingdom of Ponemah To the Land of the Hereafter.”

THE BETA SORT O’ W A Y

IN THE BETA SORT O’ W A Y B y W. C.

Jacq u in ,

Illinois ’ 18

When a Brother’s spirit’s w eary; and he’s feeling pretty blue, The sky seems dark and dreary; and won’t let the sunshine through, It’s a great thing, fellow Betas, for a Brother just to lay His hand upon your shoulder, in the Beta Sort o’ Way. It makes you stop and think; it makes the tears to start. You feel a sort o’ flutter, in the region of your heart. You just look straight in his eye, for you don’t know what to say, When hand grips into hand, in the Beta Sort o’ W ay. Our Beta’s a curious compound, of honey and of gall, O f cares and bitter crosses, and yet the best crowd of all. And old Wooglin must be good and kind, least ways that’s what I say, When eye looks into eye, in the Beta Sort o’ Way. First sung at Midwest Beta Roundup, U niversity of Illinois, April 26, 1919.

T H E H AN D U PO N T H E SH O U LD ER Senators Borah and LaFollette

BETA LORE

IN PHI KAI PHI R

alph

elles

eeler,

Wesleyan

’04

Strong youths with eyes of glowing fire Stand round an altar noble, pure— Hand clasped in hand they take the vow That will be lasting, strong, and sure. And as they quaff the pledge they cry— “ W e’ll ever love in Phi kai P h i!” Fierce burns the edge of battle’s line. Strong hearts are stirred, the weak fall, dead. But he who knows the diamond gleam Sticks to his post, bright stars o’er head. Softly his heart renews the cry— “ Through all the earth— Hail, Phi kai P h i!” Across long lines of rising hills The Greeks are gathering from the fray, In valleys where the sun shines late They pitch their tents at close of day. While all the twilight swells their cry— “ W e live, we die— in Phi kai P h i!”

Chapter I I — Ideals 1 SSf'f

THE IDEALS OF THE FRATERN ITY 2 B

John R

e il y

nox

This is a day for congratulation. This is an hour of honest pride, and this, too, is a time well fitted for the indulgence of proud and glowing hopes, of bright and beaming anticipations. Twelve months ago was held the first meeting of the Beta Theta Pi.2 On that occasion, what were 1 On August 8, 1839, the date of the founding of Beta Theta Pi, the brothers assembled were addressed by David Linton. The oldest record book of the Alpha chapter contains this speech in full. It begin s: “In addressing you on this, the first anniversary o f our beloved association.” The use of the word “anniversary” in this connection might be confusing were there any uncertainty about the date of the establishment of the fraternity. The minutes of the same meeting contain the record, “J. R. Knox was then elected to address the society upon the first anniversary of its foundation.” The minutes for a meeting on the “2d Thursday, August, 1840.” state: “This being our anniversary, an address was delivered by John R eily Knox (a graduate member) who had been previously elected for this purpose.” Don F itz Gerald, secretary of the Miami chapter, who made a careful examination o f the min utes, writes under date of December 14, 1926: “ I find that the anniversary address is not copied in the minute book. There is a blank space headed ‘Mr. John Reily K n o x’s Anniversary Address,’ but there is no address.” 2 This title is assigned by the editor to the first anniversary address written in the hand of John Reily Knox. This manuscript was sent to the General Secretary of Beta Theta Pi on March 6, 1916, by John R. Simpson of Boston, a member o f the Miami chapter. A n accompanying letter stated that the document was given to him in July, 1889, by H enry M. Echlin of the Northwestern chapter with the sug gestion that it be read at the Convention of that year and read, too, by a member of the parent chapter. The letter continued: “ Obviously it should not have remained long either in his possession or mine but should be a part of the fraternity archives. I know of only one paper relating to Beta Theta Pi that is older than this, and that is the book in the possession of Alpha chapter that contains the original constitution and the signature of all the members of Alpha chapter since the fraternity was founded. The paper is itself, of course, full of interest and you and many another Beta

BETA LORE

the feelings of the few who there assembled in all the brightness, and all the fervor and constancy of the heart, young and fresh feelings to erect and consecrate an altar set apart for the holy offerings of friendship! The writings inscribed by hope on the tablets of the heart were, it is true, ominous of good. The first faint glimmerings of the dawn heralded a bright morn ing. The bark was launched on a sunny sea, the strong tide of persever ance carried it onward, and the favoring gales of youthful determination already filled its flowing sails. And, although the budding anticipations of the youthful heart are often blasted; although the siren songs of hope are even more deceitful than the promises of the sunny dawn; although the bark is ofttimes foundered ere it is yet clear of the harbor, yet prosperity has attended our every effort, our utmost expectations have been more than realized, and every additional day has only tended to draw closer, to clasp firmer the silver link, the silken tie that binds all loving hearts together. One year of our existence as a society has passed away. The sailor, when he has left the shore and struck out boldly into the unknown deep, seeks every opportunity of taking his bearings and of ascertaining his latitude and departure. Let us at this time imitate his prudence and look for a few moments at our present position. It is a favorable one. The Rubicon is passed. W e are steering on the ocean of experiment. The wide sea of the future is before us. A rocky coast is in our front whose havens we know not and whose ports are not on our charts, without a friendly light house on its headland or a beacon to warn us of its hidden shoals. The history of the Beta Theta Pi is but a part of the history of similar institutions. By reference to their annals we may discover the causes of our past prosperity and gather wisdom for our future guidance. Combinations of individuals for mutual instruction, for mutual assist ance, and for the cultivation of the friendly feelings are as old as the wants of man and coeval with the growth of literature.4 Traces of them may be found in the annals of almost every nation. O f this kind were the priesthood of Egypt and the Magi of Persia, the Jewish Santi5 and will read it with a fine and tender appreciation o f the college atmosphere of 1840 that it projects so warmly through the seventy-six years that have intervened; and we will all be proud that the ambitious hopes that the founders held fo r the future growth and influence o f the fraternity were so thoroughly justified and have been so wonderfully realized.” This priceless manuscript is worn with age; some of its words being read with difficulty owing to the tear in the folds of the paper. It is now printed so that the subject matter may become familiar to all members of the fraternity. T h e footnotes which have been prepared by Francis W . Shepardson will indicate some of the special allusions made by “ Pater” Knox. 3 The first regular meeting of the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity was held in the hall o f Union Literary Society of Miami University “at nine o’clock on Thursday evening, A ugust 8th, Anno Domino, 1839.” So runs the record in the minute book preserved by the Alpha chapter at O xford, Ohio. A t this meeting an inaugural address was delivered by John H. Duncan, who had previously been elected first president o f the fraternity. . 4 See Hutton W ebster, Primitive Secret Societies. The Macmillan Company, 1908. See also for many suggestions Joseph F ort N ew ton: The Builders, The Torch Press, 191 ®T he form “ santi” fo r “ sancti’M s used. The text has “ senti,” but inquiry from a number of authorities found no justification_fo r such a word. One o f the most learned Jewish Rabbis in the country made this comment: “I am as much puzzled

TH E IDEALS OF TH E FR A TE R N ITY

the British Druids. Even during the darkest and most gloomy periods of the Middle Ages traces of them may be observed, and it was through them that the literature of the ancient world was in part preserved. Chivalry had its origin in an association of individuals secretly combined to assist each other, and to befriend everyone who knew and acknowledged the secrets of their order. And when the institution of chivalry had spread itself throughout the whole of Europe, and its devotees had become so numerous that the original objects were forgotten, minor associations were formed

J O H N R E I L Y K N O X , Miami ’39 A s he looked when he was in college.

who acted in secret and who were bound to each other by the strongest cords of faith and fellowship. Holy men (misguided in their faith, it is as you are to assign meaning to the puzzling word in the manuscript discovered by Professor Shepardson. I know of no Jewish ‘Senti.’ That word is clearly inadmissable. But your suggestion to make it ‘Sanh* is also inadmissable, fo r apparently reference is made to a quasi-benevolent and secret fraternity such as the Druids, the Magi, etc. The sanhedrin cannot be classed among fraternities. Suppose we read ‘Sects.’ Then the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and I believe even more, the Essenes, are in the w riter’s mind. I f you could twist the exasperating word into ‘Saints’ I should adopt the meaning Assideioi or in the Hebrew Hassidhim, the saints of the Maccabean period who were organized something like the beneficent fraternities men tioned in the text.”

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true) bound themselves together by vows which were never broken and pursued the great objects of their associations with an energy that never tired, with a zeal that knew not self-, and with a devotedness that never counted gold. The lamp which burned in secret burned even on that account the more brightly. And when the curtain of ignorance and super stition was withdrawn, the light which burst on the eyes of the bewildered beholders startled all Europe with its brilliancy, and men learned to revere the character of those men who had opened the hitherto sealed book of Nature and read to them the contents of these mysterious pages. With the history and names of many of these we are all familiar. Among the most remarkable was the order of Jesuits. The energy with which they pursued all the objects, the devotedness with which they sacrificed property, talents, life itself, everything which man holds most dear, to the great ends of their institution raised them from obscurity to be the scourge of kings and the dread of Europe. But their pride and ambition at length worked their downfall. Nations became jealous of their power, and by united efforts they were put down. Their fall was probably merited, but they died hard, fighting it out to the last. But probably the most celebrated of this species of association is the well known far famed society of Free Masons.6 The origin of this associa tion is unknown. Their own account, tracing it back to the building of Solomon’s temple, was, of course, fabulous. In all probability it was very obscure. But however that be, it grew with time and spread with civiliza tion until its members were found in every country and of every clime. Men were found in its lodges from all the ranks of life, and of all varieties of talent and attainment. Kings have been its Grand Masters and beggars have attained to its highest honors. Whether it has ever been of great and general benefit may be doubted. It has been, no doubt, perverted to evil, but it has been more uniformly productive of good. The necessity of its existence in this country is very questionable. The effect which may be produced upon the community by the united action of so large and miscellaneous a body of men might, if improperly exerted, be very injurious. A s a natural consequence of the number of its members some will be admitted, bad and reckless men, who, when separate from each other, will individually be impotent to the accomplishment of any great evil, but there are few things which a united body of desperate and ener getic men cannot accomplish. Its decline cannot, therefore, under existing circumstances be a matter of regret.7 The great ends of those secret societies which have in one way or other had their influence on the destiny of nations have been accomplished in ways as various as their objects were different. They have been com posed, some of them, of soldiers who fought only for the aggrandizement of their order; sometimes of monks who labored day after day and year after year, “ from morn till night, from youth to hoary age,” in one cause and for one object. Again, we find statesmen bound together by an oath of secrecy to bend all their exertions upon one point and never slack in their ardor until that object was attained. Revolutions have been accom plished and despots dethroned by the more energetic action of a small but 6 See W . G. Sibley: The Story o f Freemasonry, 1913; also Newton’s The Build ers, cited above. 7 The use of the word “decline” refers to the effect o f the “Anti-M asonic” move ment which was still powerful at the time the address was delivered.

TH E IDEALS OF TH E FR A TE R N ITY

daring association. The great secret of their success consisted not in numbers but in union, not in great strength, but in active, well directed and simultaneous exertions; not in the power and dignity of their members, but in the single-heartedness of their zeal and the untiring ardor of their devotion. They knew that what a few men united in heart and hand willed to do could be done. In the vocabulary of their order there was no such word as “ fail.” They recognized the principle of the Corsican’s8 suc cess. “ Impossible” was a word to them unknown. It may, however, be doubted whether secret associations having a po litical object are consistent with our liberal institutions. The father of his country, George Washington, in his farewell address to the American people, thus warns his countrymen against such societies: “ However com binations or associations of the above description may now and then an swer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for them selves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.” The wisdom of these obser vations has never been doubted by the patriotic statesmen of our country. And in one instance the American people have shown themselves true to the advice of Washington. The secret combination of Burr and other distinguished individuals brought about his political de^ith. They, the people, asked not “ Were his designs traitorous?” but “ Were the means which he used dangerous to the liberties of his country?” They were, and his political doom was sealed. Though we may lament the loss of his great talents and political sagacity in the administration of the government, yet the doom which the people pronounced against the political course of Aaron Burr was not an unjust one, and his fate stands upon record a solemn warning to intriguing and designing mert. The time was, indeed, when in the estimation of the people of America the name of “ Arnold,” the apostate, was the only one which exceeded that of “ Burr” in infamy.9 Let us now see, my friends, wherein consists the difference between those associations to which I have alluded and the Beta Theta Pi. In the first place, the great objection urged to secret combinations by Washing ton is in no way applicable to us. W e have no political objects in view. Nothing can be more the reverse. N ext to the cultivation of the friendly feelings, the advancement of science and literature is the mainspring of our exertions.10 A s citizens, we go forth in the common cause of our country, every man to the polls to forward inasmuch as seems to him 'N apoleon Bonaparte. 9 This reference to the so-called “ B urr Conspiracy” is interesting as showing the school of political thought in which “ Pater’' K n ox was trained. T he modern in terpretation of Aaron B urr’s somewhat mysterious western expedition is by no means so unfavorable to his memory. But Jefferson’s friends hated Burr because o f the out come of the presidential election of 1800 and Hamilton’s friends hated him because of the result of the duel between the two New Y o rk political leaders. 10The first article of the Constitution o f Beta Theta Pi declares that “it shall have for its objects the promotion o f moral and social culture of its members, the establishment of confidence and friendly relations between the universities and colleges o f the United States, in securing unity of action and sympathy in matters of com mon interest between them, and the building up o f a fraternity that recognizes mutual assistance in the honorable labors and aspirations o f life, devotion to the cultivation o f the intellect, unsullied friendship, and unfaltering fidelity, as objects worthy the highest aim and purpose of associated effort.”

BETA LORE

fit, the success of his own candidate. That is between him and his country, his conscience and his God. W ith that, as a society, we must, we can have nothing- to do. But when we come together as members of the Beta Theta Pi, all political differences are dropped— all our political feelings are forgotten. W e are no longer politicians, but friends; no longer candidates, but brothers, and we are ready to give the “ All Hail” of welcome, the open hand of friendship, to all who wear the badge and bear the name of Beta Theta Pi.11 Our limited number I conceive to be another distinction, and a very im portant one, between our own and other, in some respects similar, associa tions. The objection which has been urged to the Masonic and other similar institutions, that the greatness of their numbers rendered them, when well united, too powerful a body to exist separate and distinct in the bosom of a community, is one that can never apply to us. It was, on the part

of the monarchs of Europe, the fear of this power that influenced them to overthrow the order of Jesuits. And in this country, but a short time ago, on occasion of the abduction of Morgan,12 the whole country was alarmed, and for a time to be a “ Free Mason” was, in the estimation of many, to be little better than a murderer. The necessity of this fear had in all probability no existence save in the excited imaginations of the people. Y et it served to show in startling colors the jealously of the popular feel ing on this subject. This fear can only be engendered in the minds of the mass when they discover a great body existing in their friidst, linked to gether by uncommon ties in the pursuit of objects which they conceive to be calculated to produce effects injurious to the public safety or encroaching on popular liberty. 11 The appearance here o f the fam iliar words “wear the badge and bear the name o f Beta Theta P i” is noteworthy. 12 W illiam Morgan, supposed to have been abducted by Freemasons fo r planning to reveal the secrets o f their order. A lofty monument to his memory stands in the cemetery in Batavia, N ew York, in full view of trains of the N ew Y o rk Central Railway. M organ’s Illustrations of Masonry was first published in 1826.

TH E IDEALS OF TH E FR A TE R N ITY

On this subject, then, is the Beta Theta Pi in no way liable to censure In connection, however, with this subject suffer me to advert to another advantage connected with our limited number. Our numbers, as they can never be numerous, may be much more select. No one should be admitted within our pale whose character we know not, or whose principles are such as should render him an unsafe companion. By pursuing this course, the great objects of our association will be carried out, and we may be assured that the advantages which it affords will never be perverted to evil. Having thus, my friends, endeavored to show in what respects the Beta Theta Pi is less liable to censure than other, in some respects similar, asso. ciations, permit me for a few moments to advert to a most pleasing theme — the advantages connected with such institutions as ours. Friendship has been a theme of eulogy with poets, and a subject of skepticism among metaphysicians for centuries. The sad and gloomy misanthrope is ever ready to repeat the expression of Goldsmith’s H erm it: “A h ! what is friendship but a nam e; A charm that lulls to sleep; A shade that follows wealth or fame, And leaves the wretch to weep.”

While the bright and glowing heart o f youth is ready with the author of the “ Night Thoughts” to speak of it as the “ wine of life,” or with the imaginative Greek to erect altars and sacrifice to it as to a god, the ardent and affectionate Pollok speaks of the friends with whom he had “ Talked the speech and ate the food o f Heaven, Companions of his young desires Joy in his grief, his second bliss in joy.”

in the warmest terms with which fancy can robe words. Coleridge, that curious mixture of imagination and metaphysics, in speak ing of those now enemies “W ho had been friends in youth,”

tells us that “W hispering tongues can poison tru th ; And constancy lives in realms above; And life is thorny, and youth is v a in ; And to be wroth with one we love Doth work like madness in the brain.”

Many miscalled philosophers of the selfish school have even doubted the reality of such a sentiment. To which shall we attach the most credence? Which shall we rather credit, the stamp o f the metaphysician, or the imagi native ardor of the poet? Shall we members of the Beta Theta Pi doubt the existence of such a feeling? Shall we, many of whom have spent years with each other, reciprocating every feeling, whose hearts have beat in unison, and whose tastes have run in the same channel, shall we doubt the existence of such friendship of the purest and most disinterested kind in the mind of him, the almost brother, with whom we have for years grown together side by side like two plants by a river, drawing life from the same fountain and strength from the same sun, who has smoothed our couch in sickness, stood by our side in the hour of danger, walked with us the paths of learning, trod with us the heights of knowledge, shared our glad ness, alleviated our melancholy, and who stands ready to lay down his life

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for ours, shall we doubt his friendship, shall we turn upon him and say, with the cold skepticism of the epicurean, “ It is naught but selfishness which has prompted thee to all this?” What heart would not spurn such a thought! Rather than have such a one for a friend, rather than take to my bosom so cold and selfish a companion, though he could ascend in thought to the noblest works of God, though he had followed the sun in his track, or could trace the burning and eccentric course of the comet through the wide fields of illimitable space, though he had followed the stars as they walked in their nightly procession through the halls of the sky, though he “T o the music o f the rolling spheres Intelligently listened; and gazed far back Into the aw ful depths of Deity,”

Y et would I rather for my friend choose him who “ The word philosophy had never heard W ho thought the silver moon That nightly o’er him led her virgin host No broader than his father’s shield,”

so only his heart could appreciate that “ flower of heavenly seed.”13 How, then, are we to obtain this, earth’s most Hyblaean bliss? Young tells.14

Dr.

“ Love and love only is the loan for love Lorenzo, pride repress, nor hope to find A friend but what has found a friend in thee.”

Here, then, is the secret, “ Nor hope to find a friend but what has found a friend in thee.” Let only the members of the Beta Theta Pi repose in each other confidence unlimited (in accordance with the vows which we have taken) and I, for my part, ask no other security. This is a confidence which gold cannot buy, and without which a monarch must be miserable except his heart be cast in that iron mould that seeks not for sympathy and asks not for love. Let each member be as ready to assist as he would wish the brother to be of whom in the hour of need he would ask assistance. Thus one may be to the other as a brother and the name of Beta Theta Pi become the shibboleth of love. How apt in this place is the advice of old Polonius to his son, “ The friend thou hast and his adoption tried, grapple him to thy soul with hoops of steel.”15 This, I said, is a day for congratulation. This is the first anniversary of the foundation of our institution. Already are some of our members scattered abroad. A sister association, or rather our own society, another self, is found in the Queen City of the Glorious W est.16 Soon another band of classmates will leave their Alma Mater for the exciting scenes and 13 “ P ater” K nox appears sophomoric in some of his long and involved sentences u In “ Nigrht Thoughts.” Note the quotations in this book, as from Pollok’s “ Course o f Tim e,” Goldsmith and Coleridge, unfamiliar reading to the boys of 1928. 15 “Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried Grapple them to thy soul with hoops o f steel.” — Hamlet, A ct I, Scene 3 18 A reference to the Cincinnati chapter; the city of Cincinnati being known as “ The Queen of the W est In her garlands dressed -•<*. B y the banks of the beautiful river.”

TH E IDEALS O F TH E FR A TE R N ITY

conflicting interests of men.17 Among them will go a few who wear the badge and bear the name of Beta Theta Pi. They will bear our principles, our motto and our badge to the utmost bounds of our great republic. And proud I am to think that they will bear them honorably and nobly. Neither can I resist the conviction that the world will yet learn the names of some, even of this small band. Let this day, then, ever be remembered as one of rejoicing. And when our numbers are scattered throughout the whole country, on this day, from the North to the South, from the East to the West, from the Gulf to the Lakes,18 from ocean to ocean, wherever one of us is found, wherever our members may be scattered, on this day will they assemble together and keep it as a day of hallowed recollections, a day sacred to the past, a day memorable in the future, a day for the outpouring and commingling of their generous and friendly hearts, a day of pleasure to themselves, a day of honor to the Beta Theta Pi. 17 “ Commencement” at Miami in the days of our founders was held in August. The Beta graduates of 1840 were John Holt Duncan, Thomas Boston Gordon, Henry Hunter Johnson, Samuel Taylor Marshall, James George Smith and Robert W . Wilson. 18 “W e are coming from the East, boys, W e ’re coming from the W est, Shouting ‘Old W ooglin’ forever, And the boys of Sunny Southland A re coming with the rest.”

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FRIENDSHIP 1 B y D a v id L

in t o n

In addressing you on this, the first anniversary of our beloved associa tion, I should be blind to circumstances were I not to feel the responsibility of the station resting heavily upon me. When I look around me and con sider the character of those whom I address and the cause which incites us; when I look forward to our future prospects, to the talent and attain ment that must be arrayed under our banner if we prove faithful to our selves, to the tremendous influence, the concentrated power which their concentrated efforts must wield; in the full view of all these circumstances I should shrink from the undertaking were I not confident that your kind and partial indulgence, which alone can shield this hasty and futile effort, will be extended to me and afford broad and ample protection. W ith this view of my present condition I shall direct your attention for a few moments to the sentiments embodied in the first and last words of our m otto; for I feel that they lie at the foundation of all our hopes, that they constitute the sure anchor of our future prosperity, the main pillars upon which the temple of our glory is to rest. In reference to friend ship as well as every other virtue, there have been two classes of men who have entertained different opinions. The one adheres to what has been called the selfish system, the other to the benevolent and disinter ested. The selfish contend men love not friendship for its own sake, or, if they do, it is the most foolish impulse of the heart. [They claim friendship should be determined2] by wisdom, that all our associations are for the advancement of some hidden and interested design. With them it is the highest wisdom to use their partners in toil and danger, in joys and high hopes, as the mechanic uses his tools, for the accomplish ment of some ulterior purpose, their own private ends. For my own honor I hope that such sentiments may never exist in my breast. For the honor and prosperity of our beloved society I hope and trust they may never be entertained by any “ who wears the badge and bears the name of Beta Theta Pi.” 3 Our own observation and experience have taught us that the natural disposition of man is to confide, the prattling infant in his anxious mother, the cheerful boy in his playful mate, the daring youth in his bold com panion. W e also know that candor and sincerity mark the character of man in the main in the springtime of life; and that these are the halcyon days of his existence, when the dew of innocence has not been drunk by the thirst of ambition, the golden age of the poets when truth and virtue remained enshrined in the heart. 1 The title is given by the editor, Francis W . Shepardson, to the address delivered by Founder Linton at the first regular meeting of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. The minutes sta te : “ David Linton, who had been previously appointed to prepare a suitable address for the occasion, discharged the duty devolving upon him in an essay upon the first, and an extempore address upon the last, words of the motto.” The text here printed, copied from the record book o f Alpha chapter by several o f the active members on March, 191 7> presumably is the first part o f the address, that is, the “ essay.” The last part, or “extempore address,” no doubt is forever lost. * S ix words are interpolated by the editor to fill out a sentence not complete in the Alpha record book, namely “ T hey claim friendship should be determined. 3 This expression seems to have made a strong impression upon the founders, as it has upon hundreds o f Betas since 1839.

FRIENDSHIP

Thpugh the sun of life shall have ascended far toward the meridian, though the mind of man be engaged in the hot pursuit of fortune, fame and power, or whatever else the heart may desire; still, ever anxious, the mind looks around for another whose artless countenance beams with re spect, whose bosom swells with tender regard, and whose sympathy may soothe its aching troubles. And does it look thus in vain? Do we gaze on the fellow being, old and intimate companion it may be, whose very form is loveliness, whose very tones seem kindness, and is there no such

D A V ID L IN T O N , Miami ’39 A s he looked when he was in college.

thing as the rich, the joyous function of friendship? Has the mildew of the soul corrupted the fountains of the heart? And are the enjoyments which are not compassed about by this frail tenement of clay, to be turned into sorrows and into heart-achings ? Are not the frank expressions, the cor dial greetings, and the artless smiles of those with whom we have daily inter course, so many outward manifestations of the kind sentiments cherished within? Or must we believe them the wiles of duplicity, the base subter fuge of ulterior designs? Or to say the most of it, can we harbor the thought that friendship is to vanish like the morning cloud before the orb of glory, or like the beautiful yet fragile flower, is to be blasted by the simoom of avarice; or is it yet like the slender bark on ocean wave to be engulfed in the maelstrom of all absorbing selfishness? If it be so, why

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this anxiety, this longing for another in whose candor we can confide, whose sympathy may pillow our misfortunes? Does not every heart re spond? There is a chord in the breast of man which vibrates in unison with his fellow, a feeling in kindred spirits which links them in heavenly unison, a joyous junction in the wedlock of souls which tells on the actions of men. Y et if truth be not on the tongue, if virtue be not enshrined in the heart, if rectitude mark not the footsteps of men, then indeed this unison of souls can never take place. The chalice of pleasure proffered by the hand of friendship is turned into gall and into bitterness. A s no man of sense ever trusts the gossip with his secrets or the spendthrift with his money, so no man of prudence or discernment ever confides in the vicious or selfish. No one is worthy of your confidence whose actions have not been characterized by candor, generosity and justice. For without these there can be no lasting attachment, no enduring friendship. An assassin or conspirator may have an accomplice, the powerful may have courtiers, the instructed associates, the voluptuous companions, but the generous, the disinterested, the virtuous, alone can have any rational hope of enjoying the rich fruition of friendship. I say the generous, for who does not contemn the parsimonious and mean; the disinterested, for it is magnani mous— it speaks the nobleness of our nature, and, I will add, it is the con summation of wisdom; and finally, the virtuous, for it shines in the senti ment expressed by England’s choicest bard, when speaking of the essen tial requisite of a friend, that “ Every virtue of the soul Must constitute the charming whole A ll shining in their places.” The history of our race amply sustains these positions. If you turn to the venerable chronicler of the past, he will tell you that Cethegus was the accomplice of Cataline, that Maecenas was the courtier of Augustus, but that it took a Tully to be the friend of Atticus, the patriotism of a Brutus to recommend him to Cato. Let us go to the venerable man, drink inspiration, copious draughts from his wisdom learned from experience, consult his pages, for there we may trace causes to their effects, deeds to their consequences. From these let us learn a lesson. A s a single in stance mark the rewards attendant upon the virtue, the patriotism and the friendship of Epaminondas and Pelopidas, invincible in the field, firm and unswerving in their attachments. Mainly through this influence the dull Boeotian burst asunder the chains of his bondage, and the city of Cadmus swayed the destinies of Greece.4 A glorious immortality rests upon their names, and the world does homage to their goodness. From these and numerous other examples you may learn that the vir tuous qualities though indispensable are not sufficient to win the wise man’s confidence. It is not the part of the philosopher to confide in the stupid and ignorant however good their intentions, however much they may de sire his welfare. While it it his to admire the cheerful sincerity of virtue, 4 The references to classical to those who heard Founder Linton liberation o f Thebes from Spartan friend of Epaminondas, is a famous

names and events were no doubt, perfectly familiar on Beta’s first meeting night. The story of the tyranny under the leadership of Pelopidas, the one in Greek history.

FRIENDSHIP

the invincible power of truth, and the mountain’s majesty of worth, to know them from their effects, and to love them for their own sake, he equally admires that strength of mind which is necessary to distinguish be ll tween virtue and vice, truth and error, generosity and prodigality, that H energy of soul which knows how to appreciate and adhere to the former, to despise and resist the allurements of the latter. He looks upon his fellow men with the eye of discernment, but not of suspicion as beings having excellence, yet through the influence of ignorance prone to err, loving goodness, yet tossed on the tempest of passion, or borne rapidly 11 on by the swift current of the desires, liable to be engulfed in vice and misery. Imitate his example, for prudence and warmth of feeling are not incompatible. Remember that ’tis virtue and wisdom that give vitality to friendship, and that without them there can be no lasting bond of union.

I I I

Then study that you may be wise and cherish every virtue of the soul that you may be worthy of a brother’s confidence. Sow the seed of innocence that you may reap a peaceful and joyous harvest. Aspire after excellence, for it is manly, noble, God-like. Before I dismiss this part of my subject, let me exhort you to culti vate friendship for its own sake, for it has an intrinsic value uncomputed, incomputable. Let none say, what care I for my brother’s esteem? What is all this worth? How will it advance my interests, subserve my private ends? This is the language of delusion and folly, the breathing of a narrow soul, the effervescence of base selfishness. But let all of us ask ourselves those other questions of wisdom and of honor. W hat shall I do to render myself worthy of a brother’s esteem? How shall I promote his interests or win his confidence? And what exertions shall I make to prove to all that I am not a mere cipher in the association to which I belong? Let each one of us ask ourselves these questions, and answer them by our actions, for they are the bodyings forth of our nobler nature, the language of a generous spirit.

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THE GENTLE ART OF BEING A BETA W

il l is

O. R o b b , Ohio Wesleyan ’79

There comes a time in the lifelong practice of any art when the prac titioner either is deemed to be qualified, or at least is patiently allowed, to pose as a teacher— or preacher— of that art. Sometimes, of course, his preaching doesn’t agree very well with his previous practice, but usually it is all the better for that. Now, I have been a practicing Beta for two-thirds of my own lifetime and half the lifetime of the Fraternity, or, say, onethird of a century. And I have been enabled to follow that calling under very favorable conditions. I have held pretty nearly every position of honor or responsibility or hard work that Beta Theta Pi affords, from Corresponding Secretary of a Chapter to President of the Fraternity. I have personally known and been more or less intimate with almost all the men who have been in any way. active in our general fraternity affairs since Charlie W alker, our first General Secretary, died in 1877. And, finally, I have passed my whole Beta life in one or the other of those two chief cen ters of Beta population, Ohio and New York. Incidentally, and aside from Beta Theta Pi history altogether, those are the two spots on the map which have been, during all that time, the two liveliest places of residence for an American human being. Since I entered college and Beta Theta Pi, in the fall of 1875, the President of the United States has always been either an Ohioan or a New Yorker, except for two periods aggregating about five years, and then he was a man born in Ohio though elected from another state. And the New York-Ohio rotation in that office seems to me likely to continue for a good long time yet to come— say sixteen years, at least. W ell, all these circumstances have combined to give me unusual facilities both for practising the art of being a Beta and for observing how others, among my contemporaries, have practised it. So that on my arrival at the preaching time of life I, can claim a better than the average preparation for that task of my declining years. O f course, if I were in private con versation to mention to some former official colleague, say Frank Sisson, that I am now purposing to begin preaching to Betas, he would be pretty sure to say, with his classic oath, “ Begin? Why, Heavens to Betsy, when did you ever do anything else? Haven’t you been preaching to just such an audience, in print and in public, in prose and verse and after-dinner speech, ever since I knew you, and then some?” And he would honestly believe that to be true. But that is because he doesn’t yet know my real “ speed” as a preacher. This is to serve notice that I have just begun. I may have read the morning lesson, or intoned the service, a few times, in the by-gone days, but really preach— not y e t! When the crocodile, in K ip ling’s story of the “ Elephant’s Child,” had fastened his jaws in the young elephant’s nose,— in those days a mere snout like a hog’s or tapir’s— and he and his victim had both settled back and pulled and pulled, until that blessed nose had stretched out into a trunk nearly five feet long, the by standers, if there were any, must have thought they had already seen what we Long Islanders would call “ quite some” pulling. But it was after that that the Bi-Colored Python-Rock Snake, the elephant’s ally, knotted himself in a double clove hitch around the latter’s hind legs and announced,

BEING A BETA

“ W e will now seriously devote ourselves to a little high tension!” So it is only now, after all these preliminary years of much talk, that I begin to take seriously my self-appointed task as a fraternity preacher. Have a care, and govern yourselves accordingly. And in this first sermon of the regular course you will observe I deal with fundamentals. The art of which I seek to present to you the elements is not that of looking like a Beta, or acting like a Beta, or, as the phrase is, “ making a noise like” a Beta, but that of being a Beta. The motto of my old college literary society, expressed— or concealed— in a language even then called “ dead,” and now a good deal deader than it was then, was “ To be, rather than to seem.” It could well have been made broader: “ To be, rather than to believe, to be, rather than to know, to be, even rather than to do.” For life is at bottom neither creed nor knowledge nor conduct. These, greater than they, it underlies as the sea underlies its ripples, its waves and its surge alike. And it is that underlying entity or essence back of all the phenomena of a Beta personality and career that I am asking you to concern yourselves with now. Who and what like was the best Beta you ever knew in your under graduate life? Do you ever ask yourself that question? I do, not in frequently. And the answer is rather enlightening. For my best Beta — yours, too, I fancy— is not necessarily, though it may in some cases happen to be, the most active, zealous, energetic chapter-and-fraternityworker of the crowd. A t least, he must be something more and something elementally greater than that. I think, on the whole, our best Beta will prove to be he who combined most happily these two characteristics: first, a taste for and some progress in a broad, general, all-around culture, as distinguished from a lack of any real culture on the one hand, and from a narrow or specialized culture on the other; and, second, a genius for friendship, as distinguished both from a liking for solitude and a craving for popularity. Consider these two traits separately for a moment. Beta Theta Pi, like all the other great college fraternities, was founded and grew to greatness among college students who were pursuing non-elec tive, general-culture courses. They were not men who went to college be cause their fathers had money and had heard that that was the thing for the sons of such fathers to d o ; nor men who, after they got there, were able to select a complement of “ cinch courses” that would let them get a degree without having two mental operations in the whole four years. More over, they could not, for two or three of those four years, specialize ex clusively in some branch of gas-plumbing or horse-carpentry. N o; they all took— they all had to take— at least a glance, and generally a pretty steady glance, at a wide range of educational topics: the languages, the literatures and the histories of both the ancient and the modern world, mathematics and natural sciences, philosophy and political economy. They did not often, during their college days, attain real proficiency in any of these, though many of them then made a choice of special subjects of which later they showed great mastery. But they did pretty generally acquire a sane and just outlook over life as a whole, fit themselves for dwelling happily and working usefully among cultivated people, and eventually con tributed immensely to raise the average level of their several communities, both materially and personally. Now-a-days, the student body in the typical

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American college or university is dreadfully diluted from two sources: first, the swarming mobs of youngsters who have not gone to college at all, but merely been sent there, who have neither aptitude nor ambition in the direc tion of learning of any kind, and who are the despair both of the teaching and the governing faculties; and, second, the great groups of students who, without having done any preliminary general-culture-course work worthy of the name, are pursuing, diligently enough in many cases, what are in effect manual training courses only. These last deserve, they must have, an increasingly large place in our scheme of public education, but they are not college students in any sense in which Beta Theta Pi has been taught to use that designation. If I controlled both the chapter-roll of the fraternity and the membership-roll of all its chapters, there would be but few of either of these two classes licensed to wear the badge and bear the name of Beta Theta Pi. For the gentle art of being a Beta will for the most part re main an unknown, an impossible, art to all such. The first distinguishing mark of the genuine fraternity man is his all-aroundness, his likeness to the great Greek “ who saw life steadily, and saw it whole.” And in the next place, the best Beta you ever knew, the best exemplar of the art I am trying to expound to you, had an unusual capacity, natural or acquired, most probably both, for friendship. He neither shunned his fellows nor sought a shallow popularity, was neither a hedge-hog nor a trick elephant. Thoreau wouldn’t have made a good Beta, nor Dante, nor John the Baptist,— all excellent men in their way. Adaptability to the society of one’s fellows is indispensable in the fraternity man. It is to be noted, however, that the fraternity relation itself brings out the social qualities— the friendliness— of many a youngster whose external bearing, from shyness or other natural defect, does not suggest his real quality to the casual observer; a fact that is brought home almost every year to almost every Chapter, both by its hits and its misses. But even oftener than a Chapter goes wrong in not taking the right fellow, because of failure to see the fraternity man in him behind some thin mask or disguise, it goes wrong— and farther wrong at that— in taking the wrong fellow, solely be cause of some accidental or unessential gift or acquirement that makes for easy popularity, but has nothing to do with the real man or his fraternal quality. It may be prowess or promise in athletics, or a singing voice, or a gift for story-telling. A ll of these things attract, and all of them are ornaments,— but they are not substance. Now, we do in fact, whether we know it or not, choose our chapter-mates in no small proportion of cases, not merely for intimate associates through two or three or four years of college residence, but for lifelong acquaintances, possibly lifelong friends. And it is the real man and his capacity for real friendship that finally count, for whatever term the engagement is entered into. To be a Beta brother a man must first be a Beta spirit. The finest lifelong friendships between men that I have either shared or seen have most of them been Beta friendships. But the material has been more important, more con trolling, than the opportunity, in every such case. And to secure the en during possession of a few such friendships is worth the taking of great pains at the outset. A s you grow old, and yet keep up the steady grind at the job life has found for you, or thrust upon you, the recollection of a few— even a very few— real friends scattered here and there in the world,

B E IN G A B E T A

who date back to college days, and whom you know to be unchanged and unchangeable by separation, or silence, or the flight of time, is like a polar traveler’s recollection of the treasure and supplies he has buried in secret places against the perils of the return journey. When we choose our fra ternity friends in undergraduate days we are selecting, in part at least, the permanent furnishings of our earthly dwelling-place. And such furnishings will need to be of excellent virtue both in durability and in design, if they are neither to fail us nor weary us before we have done with them. The gentle art of being a Beta, then, in college and in life, to one’s self and to one’s Beta brethren, seems to me largely to consist in range of taste and strength of sympathy— breadth of culture and depth of affection. In that likeness let us mold our Chapters, that they in turn may stamp it on their membership for all time. Or, rather, since men make a fraternity far more truly than a fraternity makes its men, let us see to it that men of this type are chosen for the making of our Chapters, that the Chapters in their turn may make of us the fraternity such men will deserve to have,— “The goodliest fellowship o f famous knights W hereof this world holds record.”

(Speech at New Y ork Alumni Banquet, March 26, 1909.)

BETA LORE

THE IDEAL BETA F

r a n c is

S is s o n ,

K nox

’92

It is with some temerity that I undertake to discuss the Ideal Beta or ideals of any sort. There doesn’t seem to be so much of a market for this line of goods in these United States of ours in this wonderful age of frenzied endeavor. Yet, after all, extreme usually begets extreme, and the far swing of the pendulum to satanic selfishness sounds the call for deific altruism. From out of the mazes and high complexity of existence we raise a yearning cry for the simple life. Burdened with a world of things, we long for primal poverty. Satiated with the counterfeit, we demand the real and vital. It is a wonderful thing to be carried from Chicago to New York in twenty hours, but isn’t it much more important what a man does when he gets here? It is marvelous to talk by long-distance telephone across the country, but the more important thing is, after all, what we say when we talk. W e are the greatest industrial and commercial people in the world, but are the foundations upon which we have built these achieve ments based on the rock of eternal verity or rocking on the shifting sands of greed and dishonor? W e have given the world little of great art, great music or great literature, but our pride and boast has been our success as a business people, and yet what are the standards of that suc cess? In brief, that nothing profitable is wrong, that there is no God but Self, no principle but G reed; that the doors of opportunity open only to private keys. From out of this turmoil of megalomania and disorder, law lessness; vulgarity and corruption, may we not turn with profit for a few moments from the darkness to the light and find peace and encouragement in the thought of the high thinking and simple living of other, better days? W e may rest assured that success has its tragedies as well as its triumphs, and one of the saddest spectacles of this turgid living is the vain, pathetic search for that without which only grows within, for it is demonstrably cer tain that real happiness exists only in proportion to one’s spiritual and intel lectual advancement. The world seems so full of the noise of rushing feet, so busy, so crowded, that there is no time for better things, no ear for the still small voice of the spirit. Y et here we are, three hundred or more busy men of affairs in the busiest city of the world, drawn out of the maelstrom of greed and gain by a memory, by a sentiment, transformed for the hour from battling foemen into brothers by the magic touch of altruism, which, however deep we may bury it, is never lost within us. Like Kipling’s British Soldier, we “ hear the temple bells a’ calling,” calling us back to holier and fairer days of that golden age when the dew of innocence had not been drunk by the thirst of ambition. W e find that the spark of eternal verity kindled by our fraternity still glows within us, and from out of the chaos of materialism we are inspired to draw uplifting purpose. From out of this past there comes the voice of youth’s ideals bidding us remember that life, real life, does not spring from bread alone, but from every inspiration that comes out of the Infinite, that the only life worth living is the life of the heart and the soul. In the mad rush to the bread counter, it begs us strive always to keep our grasp on the eternal verities, our sense of proportion and our sense

THE IDEAL BETA

of humor; to honor not the man who has riches but the man who is riches, for he alone is rich who has estates within his soul; that the world needs useful men rather than wealthy men or learned m en; that the true ideal of life is service, and the measure of human achievement is what one adds to life, not what one extracts from i t ; that there are no nobler mottoes in Christendom than— “ Ich dien” and “ Noblesse oblige.”

F R A N C IS H. S IS S O N , K n o x ’92 President of Beta Theta Pi 1912-1918; General Secretary, 1899-1907; General Treasurer, 1898-1899.

What a contrast, indeed, is presented by such a life to the spectacle afforded by men absorbed in the preposterous fight for unearned millions, men whose paths are strewn with the wrecks of others’ fortunes, whose examples are evil, and who go down to gilded tombs with the cold regard 01* bitter execrations of their fellows. I am asked to toast the ideal Beta, and I might find him as a composite of the gathering before me. In college we should want him to be the sym

BETA LORE

metrically developed man, who excels in scholarship, shines in society, wins laurels in athletics and stands in all things for sterling manhood; who makes collectively an aristocracy of breeding, character and intelligence, who carries into the minutest details of his life the lessons he has learned from his fraternity of love, faith and culture. The ideal fraternity man should be both the ideal college man and the ideal man of the world, who knows not only the arts, the letters and the sciences, but who knows men, for ruthless history has again and again proven to us that one may be as un lettered as the other side of a tombstone and in knowing men have sur passing power. Lord Roseberry says that the man of vigorous life among men can beat the man of books always and at everything in this world. The man who spends his time altogether in the company of books is never keyed up by the sense of conflict. It is this spirit of struggle, the test of wits and strength which contact with men encourages that makes for achievement. Woodrow Wilson says that college life is a question of the saturation of influences, not of formal exercises. It is not the curriculum alone which counts, but the associations of college life. That which Professor Henry Drummond calls “ the alchemy of influence” enters so largely into human affairs that its silent action tends to determine both individual and general development. It is in establishing this relation that our fraternity has its highest use fulness. In such a brotherhood during college days there is education and inspiration which the world needs. The man who liveth to himself alone, or the self-made man, is either a genius or an accident, and they are both unusual. Culture is the human soul grown ripe through such associations. The ideal Beta, in college and out, is equal to and ready for any responsi bility. He is self-poised and confident, yet reverent, mindful of established ordinances, obedient to the right, earnest to resist evil, diligent in business, patient under its exactions, generous but not wasteful, quick to acknowledge error, prompt to repay obligations, chaste in thought, upright in deed, ever courteous; in a word, alike noble in soul and bearing. But it is not enough for us to cherish these ideals; we must make these ideals our reals; we must square promise with performance and join pre cept to practice. A s our most distinguished exponent of the strenuous life has put it— “ W e should keep our eyes on the stars but never forget for a moment that our feet are on the earth.” The qualities that count the most in man are just those whch counted most two thousand years ago, and as a nation we shall achieve success or merit failure according as we do or do not display those qualities. Weighed by material standards, the present of our fraternity far sur passes the wildest dreams and ideals of its founders, with over thirteen thousand members on its rolls, with sixty-seven active chapters, fifty-six of whom live in chapter houses, with nearly half a million dollars’ worth of real and personal property held by its chapters, it is a recognized and highly honored social institution. But how much more than that its found ers hoped, and we are aware, it should b e ! It should be a constant spur and incentive to better things and higher achievement. Carlyle says that “ the present is the real sum total of the past. W e should make the present eternally right and the future will take care of itself.” That wise Quaker,

A BETA IN U TO PIA

William Penn, in his frame of government, says, “ Let men be good and gov ernment cannot be bad, but if man be bad, let the government be ever so good, they will warp and soil it to their turn. Those, therefore, who make a good government must keep it; that is, men of wisdom and virtue, which qualities, because they are not inherited, must be propagated by national education of youth.” This fraternity teaches a higher obligation than that to one’s s e lf; it is that to one’s fellow. When the Cains of the earth put the question, “ Am I my brother’s keeper?” from the ideal Beta will ring the answer, “ Y e s” ; and this ideal Beta in thought of noble service from college days through the seventh age will ever seek to make his ideals real, to merge the eternal future with its promise of good to come into the eternal present with its assurance of good that is. W e can find in the teaching of the motto and the inspiration of the spirit of Beta Theta Pi the panacea for most of the ills of society. As William Morris has written: “Love is enough, Ho, ye who seek saving, Go no further— come hither; Here is the House o f Fulfilment of Craving. Here is the cup with the roses around i t ; Here is the w orld’s wound and the balm that hath bound it.”

(A banquet speech in New York, March 24, 1905)

A BETA IN UTOPIA W

il l ia m

G raves,

Ohio State

’93

In this age of splendid materialism, it is with diffidence that one declares his possession of anything so old-fashioned as ideals, fearing the pitying smile or even a more significant tapping of the finger against the forehead. And yet, only the other day, I heard a distinguished American philosopher assert and convincingly maintain that we are a nation of idealists, and that our critics across the Atlantic have judged us wrongly. However that may be, I am myself modestly proud to claim an incorrigible, dyed-in-the-wood idealism, clung to with resolution amid discouragement, that I may not en tirely lose sight of that star to which my wagon is hitched; and this it is that enables me now and then to go wandering through Utopia in search of my ideal Beta. Do not try to discourage me by saying that he lives only in my imagin ation, a shining figure spun there out of the web of an enthusiastic fancy. He is rea l! Many a time I have found him,— almost. Many a time my glance has caught ahead the superb swing of the perfect athlete, and I have hurried to overtake, only to discover a magnificent body actuated by an insignificant mind. Now I have been drawn to this side by the warm clasp of a friendly hand, and I have found affection warped by selfishness; now to that by an effervescent loyalty, and have seen enthusiasm darkened by chapter self-esteem and a vicious spirit of fraternity caste. But some where he walks this good, green earth; some day we shall find him,— the ideal fraternity man, the ideal Beta. And when we have found him, this Beta in Utopia, and have tried him

BETA LORE

in the fire of an interested and loving criticism, I think I know some of the qualities that will emerge. First of all, we shall see him a man, master of himself. And if you tell me that complete self-mastery comes only with the flight of years and the deep knowledge of life, I shall still say that even a stripling lad can, and should have himself well in hand by the time he sights his majority, and that, though he be in the very glow and throb of a robust youth. No man is properly fitted for the intimate and exacting associations of fraternity life .who is like a flag whipped and torn in the high gale of passion. Let him have all depth of feeling, much of quick and generous impulse; let his very soul, if you will, be a vibrant harp, to be played upon by the hands of his fellow s:— but let him, and him alone, say who shall touch that instrument, and when. Only thus can he fulfill the ideal of fraternity, as of all life,— the ideal of service to his brother; for no man, young or old, ever helped to direct to successful ends the lives of others who had not first learned to direct his own. And then? W ell, then the fraternity man of my dream shall be pos sessed of the heaven-sent gift of unselfishness. Not long ago I saw a play in which, through the eyes of a Martian, dropped from his own great planet, one saw little Earth stripped and held up bare in the shame of her naked love of self. Whether we need the lesson, every man may say. I have ever thought that the one thing which chapter-house life should develop is the beauty of youthful self-sacrifice. You may ask yourselves whether it always does. But this I tell you, that a boy with the blessing of un selfishness sweetens with that spirit the sordid atmosphere of every-day association, as a lost breeze of spring, scattering scent of apple-blossoms, might sweeten the fetid air of a city slum. And so my ideal fraternity man will not bury himself in his own interests when his fellows need his sympathy and his h elp; he will, indeed, regard the chapter house as his home, but he will not forget that it is also the home of a score of other m en; he will not add to the burden of his chapter officers by refusal or delay to do his own share; he will minimize the petty annoyances of col lege life by holding himself to a cheerful and constant optimism. And his reward shall be the devotion of present comrades and a loving memory in the years to come. Next to unselfishness, the saving quality in the fraternity man is un doubtedly a sense of humor. Heaven pity the poor freshman who, with no sense of humor, decides to go into a fraternity! The theory of the modern upperclassman concerning his first-year brother seems to be some thing like th is: The freshman is either a clod, a worm, or an unlicked cub. In any case, step on him ; it will do him good. And I have seen freshmen who needed to be stepped upon. But I submit to you that the part of doormat in the drama of life, while it may be a very useful and even necessary one, is never grateful; and the first-year man who cannot see the funny side is likely to emerge from his probation just a trifle under a cloud, particularly if he has come into contact with that not rare individual who does not see the line between a jest and an indignity. But let him smile, and half his trouble vanishes. College life is not all beer and skittles; and when the rent is due, and the cook gives notice, and the water-pipes freeze, I do not know what will save you if you have no sense of humor. Cherish it, if the grace of even a little is yours; cultivate it by exercise; and when four other fellows joyously break down your bed

A BETA IN U TO PIA

II by conducting an innocent rough-and-tumble upon it, when your roommate H I

! i j

i j

nonchalantly wears off the one dress shirt you own, and had saved for this dance, when the chapter dog benignly chews all the buttons off your new and unpaid-for suit of clothes— nay, when you lose a man to your dearest enemies, you can defy fortune with a broad grin. And last, the Beta of my ideal will take his fraternity relation seriously. It is for this attitude that I plead year after year with the patient boys of my own beloved chapter. There is a kind of college man whose fraternity is an organization that gives him a badge to display, whose chapter house is a convenient lodging place, or a club where he may drop in to loaf or smoke, whose interest lies in the assurance afforded him of social standing in his school and community; but to whom the possibilities of true fraternity are a sealed book. Is there no serious side to it? Stop a minute, you upperclassman, and look at those younger boys who have been your brothers for six months or a year. Are they taking up little follies and vices that they were free from when they came to you? And who, save you, is responsible? Ask yourself whether you have any definite notions about college and fraternity manhood. Do you know that there is enough in your, obligations to make you forever of steadfast integrity and high honor, and clean in speech and life— to keep you to pleasures which, as golden-hearted old Ike Walton used to say, “ shall not make friends ashamed to look upon each other the next morning?” A re your years in the fraternity making you broad and sympathetic in your relations to other college men, or are you getting into the narrow belief that there is nothing fair and good outside your own little group? It may be that you are merely a Beta, and no fraternity man at all. W ith unswerving loyalty first to my own brotherhood, I am more and more of belief that he was a wise college presi dent who said: “ A man should have many acquaintances, and a few very good friends outside his own fraternity.” I cannot afford to miss the fineness of manhood and the devotion of friendship that may come to me from without; nor can you. In the end, it all comes to th is: if, at the close of your college course your fraternity life has made you more of a man, it has been a success; if it has not, it has been a failure. Do I seem to be giving you a homily instead of a toast? If it is so, I can only say in defense that I did not feel like coming a hundred and fifty miles to stand before you with no serious message. The essence of fraternity is as much in the man as in the thing. You yourselves may, and will, make it everything or nothing. And that is why at the last I say to you, measure the effectiveness of your life as Betas, if you will, by athletic honors gained and germans led and positions of preferment attained: these things have a perfectly legitimate claim. But measure it more, and oftener, by love of comrades won, by encouragement and sympathy offered, by young ideals ennobled, by manly service rendered. So will your fra ternity life bring you to utter the prayer that some day comes to the lips of every high-souled m an: “Ah, Lord, make me T hy knight-at-arms, And bring me quick where perils a r e ; But, ’midst of shuddering alarms, Set honor on me like a s ta r !”

( “A Beta in Utopia,” delivered at the dinner of the Cleveland Alumni Chapter, February 22, 1905.)

BETA LORE

THE BETA OF THE FUTURE W

il l is

obb,

Ohio Wesleyan

’7 9

In peering into the future to discover the outlines of the typical, but not ideal Beta supposed to dwell therein, we shall certainly be on solid and wholly unsentimental ground if we take for our guide Patrick Henry’s trite saying about judging of the future only by the past. Or, to amplify that saying a little, may we not lay down these three propositions: First, what has been steadily true of the typical Beta from the beginning of our history, and remains true of him to this day, is very likely to continue to characterize the Beta of the future; second, whatever constant tendency toward change or modification in a given direction has heretofore been apparent in the development of the typical Beta of the past and the present, is likely also to keep on showing itself in the Beta of the future; and, third, those tastes and activities and mannerisms which throughout our fra ternity history and up to the present time have been transitory and capricious in their appearances and disappearances, as attributes of the typical Beta— moving in cycles or zigzags, not in straight lines or curves— are not likely to put their permanent mark on the Beta of the future, however much he may, at intervals, show their effects. In other words, the line that runs straight from our far past to our immediate present is likely to run on, a straight line still, through all our future; the line that has been a constantly changing curve, deflecting at the same rate in the same direction, is likely to curve on, subject to the same law of constant change, hereafter as here tofore; while the line that has been a series of irregular zigzags, or of alternating reverse curves, or of cycles and epicycles— well, the only safe prophecy about the future of such a line is that it will probably continue to wobble. Now, take an illustration or two of each of these rules for prophecymade-easy; and, to reverse the foregoing order of enumeration, let us take first an example or two of the temporary, the fluctuating, the zigzag, in the development and equipment of the typical Beta. I think at once of two rather conspicuous characteristics of the modern college man, and there fore of the modern Beta as a typical modern college man, that seem to me to be distinctly of this class— characteristics that will not permanently characterize. One is over-devotion to athletics, and the other, indifference to and lack of appreciation of the best literature. I shall not discuss either of these portentous manifestations. I merely name them to call attention to their present dominance and to declare my belief in their essentially transitory character. College sport is too strenuous to be clean, college read ing too frivolous to be quickening. But I am perfectly sure, in the light of our own past and that of all other peoples, that reactions from both these conditions will and must attend the inevitable and not remote swing ing back of the pendulum, in our national and social and educational life, from the present extreme of physical and material preoccupation to the more inward and essential existence without frequent recurrence to which neither men nor civilizations can long survive. Speed the d a y ! Two other developments, however, seem to me to be indicative of permanent changes in our Beta type— changes that can be expected to be

THE BETA OF TH E FUTU RE

progressively characteristic of our fraternity future as confidently as one can predict the further sweep of an already determined curve. One of them is the trend away from first-hand acquaintance with the ancient languages and their literatures— especially Greek— and the other, the sub stitution of colony life in chapter-homes for the dormitory or boarding-

W IL L IS O. R O B B , Ohio Wesleyan ’79 President o f Beta Theta Pi, 1903-1906; Editor o f Beta Theta P i, 1878-9, 1882-3, 1884-5.

house existence peculiar to earlier college and therefore earlier fraternity history. I am not sure that either of these changes is an unmixed good, or even that the good in either of them clearly outweighs the evil; but I do feel sure that both of them are permanent and progressive changes in our fraternity environment, and that their growing influence must be taken into account in any picture we may try to make for ourselves of the Beta of the future. The days— not so far back in our past they are, either— when no one was eligible for initiation into Beta Theta Pi who had not at

b e ta lo r e

least begun the study of Greek— the days when the chapter-hall or meetingroom, as a development of the still older boarding-house or dormitory gath ering of the faithful, embodied the highest ideal of community life for a Beta chapter— those days are gone, I think, forever. Our men of today are following all manner of newly opened educational paths, few of which go through the groves of Academe, and nearly all of which lead not even to Rome; and they live their college life in college homes that combine the features of a medieval monastery, a modern club, and a commercial jointstock company. Their college study is thus more intimately connected with their future practical careers, and their college way of life more closely assimilated to their future social activities, than was at all true of their predecessors of, say, forty years ago. Whether they do in this way really get either a better education or a better social training for the work they must do and the lives they must live after graduation, I do not here consider, nor do I think the answer to that question at all an easy one. Just now I am content to note merely that these two conspicuous changes in the educational equipment and environment of the Beta of the present sharply distinguish him from the Beta of the past, and are likely still more strongly to mark and characterize the Beta of the future. Again, the Beta of the future will be distinguishable and distinguished from all other kinds of fraternity men whatsoever by just a little warmer and stronger, just a little tenderer and more enduring fraternity feeling than any of them can attain to. For it was always so. I do not in the least know how it happened, nor why it persisted after it happened, but a long time ago there came into Beta Theta Pi a fraternity spirit that was, and is, and apparently will continue to be, unique. W e know it, who are inside, and they see and record it who are outside the Beta pale. Whether young or old, in college or out, from the small school or the great university, we are conscious of a heritage of genuine fraternalism that has not been vouchsafed in like measure— I say it deliberately— to any other of the great college fraternities. And we cannot doubt that in this, as in other respects, our “ future will copy fair our past,” and that in the world of fifty years from now, as in that of fifty years ago— as in that that lies around us today — the first mark of a Beta will be his Beta spirit. And finally, though this is but viewing together, perhaps, the two char acteristics we have just been considering separately, the Beta of the future will be the most democratic of all fraternity men. He always has been ; he is now. I have long cherished the belief that fraternities like ours, by the peculiar bond they establish and maintain among college-bred men of all geographical sections of the country, contribute appreciably to the maintenance of our federal union, and of our national homogeneity and solidarity. Certainly the district and national conventions of Beta Theta Pi and the numerous city alumni reunions of her membership, do tend to strengthen the very social and political fabric of the nation. But more than that, they and the great fraternal system of which they are the expression tend to establish other bonds the enduring strength whereof may well help to save this nation from a threatened form of dissolution more dreadful than any mere dis memberment could be. Sectional or geographical separation and disintegra tion, indeed, the United States of America have not needed seriously to

TH E BETA OF TH E FUTURE

fear— since forty years ago. But the possibility of a fierce strife of class with class— of the horizontal splitting of our whole social mass into hostile strata— that dreadful possibility is never wholly absent from the thoughts and fears of the students of American life and its phenomena. No need now to dwell on the forces that make for that disastrous outcome of our great national experiment. Rather let us remember the reasons for hoping that they cannot prevail. And well may we be thankful that those reasons are so numerous and weighty— that so many sweet but strong interclass ties are being everywhere established and strengthened— that philanthropy and sociology and religion, and all the forces they create and wield, unite to keep joined together those personal and class elements of our national life that the forces of disruption are ceaselessly striving to put asunder. And among these unifying forces I cannot but give an important place to such a great national democratic fraternity as Beta Theta Pi. Her undergraduate membership averages 1,300 year by year, her living graduates number perhaps 10,000; and they represent almost every social, commercial, and political class in the Republic. Her chapters, each usually made up of many sorts and conditions of men, are planted in sixty-seven colleges, scattered throughout twenty-seven states, from the great university drawing students from the whole country, to the rural college supported almost entirely by local farmers and their sons. There are chapters of Beta Theta Pi of which almost the entire active mem bership is drawn from wealthy homes and from what are called “ old” families; there are others, three-fourths of whose undergraduate members are earning their own way, in whole or in part, through college. And as to our out-of-college Betas, their lines are gone out into all the earth, and their work and daily lives are helping to make the world over. Under such circumstances, the action and reaction of brother on brother, of chapter on chapter, of graduate on undergraduate, in the warm atmos phere of the fraternity relation, cannot but make powerfully for the up building of that conservative but democratic spirit that is the hope of our national existence, the pledge and token of our national immortality. And it is in this soil that is springing up, it is in this atmosphere that is being nurtured, the Beta of the future. How can he be otherwise than warm blooded, clear-eyed, and big-hearted— fraternal, forward-looking, and demo cratic? . . . . These, then, and such as these, are the marks by which the Beta of the future wll be distinguished. They may not, indeed, prove him to be the ideal Beta with whose picture we began the evening, but well will it be for Beta Theta Pi, and for the world of the future in which her mission lies, when they have come to mark, everywhere and always, the real B e ta ! Here’s looking toward him ! (A banquet speech in New York, March 24, 1905)

Chapter I I I — Testim onies

TH E TESTIM ONY OF EXPERIENCE Those who have been members of the fraternity need no justification for the interest they feel in it, and it is perhaps to most of us a matter of indifference what outsiders think of it. But it may be of value to our undergraduates and those who are about to enter our ranks, to know what the verdict of years has been with others whose opinions concerning other matters are entitled to respect. Men are not apt* in this age, to give public expression to their feelings, and it is, therefore, difficult to find many public utterances concerning the fraternity, and none are known to us that have been given expression, other than the frank, outspoken opinion of the speaker at the moment. In the quoted extracts which follow there will be found expression of opinion from men in all walks of life, but chiefly from those whose prominence gives their uttered expressions weight. W e find nowhere any statement of the value of the fraternity made for the sake of influencing opinion. Our record does not need it. A t the con vention of 1890 W illis O. Robb, long an ardent worker for the fraternity felicitously phrased its deeper meaning a s ‘ follows: “ Brethren of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, the fraternal relation that is to some of us so dear a present joy, to others so hallowed a memory, is to all of us something more than we are wont to think it. It consists not in forms or rites, in organization, or bodies of law s; these are mere machinery. N or does its chief glory lie even in the several friendships it produces and shelters, dear as these are, unrivaled as they must always be in freshness and in youthful ardor. Behind and beneath both these aspects lies its more essential character, its capacity o f culture. Its richest gifts are not friends, but the desire, the power, and the habit of making friends. These constitute the real ‘fraternity spirit.’ ”

The same speaker, fifteen years afterward when he had broadened his experience, expressed his riper judgment in the following happy phrase: “ Again, the Beta is distinguishable and distinguished from all other kinds of frater nity men whatsoever by just a little warmer and stronger, just a little tenderer and more enduring fraternity feeling than any o f them can attain to. For it was always so. I do not in the least know how it happened, nor why it persisted after it happened, but a long time ago there came into B eta Theta Pi a fraternity spirit that was, and is, and apparently will continue to be, unique. W e know it, who are inside, and they see and record it who are outside the Beta pale. W hether young or old, in college or out, from the small school or the great university, we are conscious of a heritage of genuine fraternalism that has not been vouchsafed in like measure— I say it deliber ately— to any other of the great college fraternities. And we cannot doubt that in this, as in other respects, our ‘future will copy fair our past,’ and that in the world o f fifty years from now, as in that of years ago,— as in that that lies around us to-day— the first mark o f a Beta will be his Beta spirit.”

Justice Harlan, of the United States Supreme Court, as his thoughts reverted to his college days, remembered the lessons of sympathy and helpfuless taught in his chapter’s halls and said: “W hatever, therefore, concerns our fellow man ought to be a matter of concern to us all. I know that such has been, and now is, the feeling of every genuine Beta, w herever he may reside, and whatever his calling. ‘H ere we meet in joys fraternal, meet to cheer our brothers on’ ; so sang the Betas at the very beginning of their or ganization in years agone, and thus they are singing today. W e will never grow weary

TH E TESTIM O N Y OF EXPERIENCE 1

of singing in that strain. Our hearts’ best sympathies go out to our brethren, wherever in this broad land their lot has been cast. Indeed, as true Betas, our sympathies go out | to every human being of whatever organization, and whether belonging to any organi zation or not, who is bravely struggling in the line of duty.”

His colleague, Justice Brewer, who came to us from the Mystic Seven, H but who recognized promptly the tie of the fraternity, stated the underlying ill idea of the fraternity in 1896, as follows: “ I call you brethren, and indeed we are brethren, not by ties o f blood, but by \ those of association and affection. W e constitute one of many similar brotherhoods,

D A V ID J. B R E W E R , Wesleyan ’55 Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court, 1889-1910 extending into every part o f the nation, which by virtue o f their fraternal power form no insignificant factor in preserving the national unity and life. In unity is strength, but unity, to be a source of strength, must be real and not artificial, in fact, not in form alone. There must be a union of hearts as well as hands................ “W e are apt to belittle the fraternal influence of these societies. They mean something more than banquets and a good tim e; they mean fellowship and friend ship. They bind heart to heart, and every one o f our number is a brother to all the rest. W e ask not whether he be from T exas or Tennessee, from N ew Jersey or New H am pshire; it is enough that he is a Beta Theta Pi. And thus, while enjoying all the good cheer and the good fellowship which come out of this society, with its large

BETA LORE

membership and frequent gatherings, we are at the same time unconsciously welding invisible but potent bands o f love to bind the mighty fabric of our national life into solid and immortal union. And so, as my thought runs to the potency of these fraternities, in the realization of the declared purpose o f the national Constitution ‘in order to form a more perfect Union’ and to the historic achievements of the nation that Union created, I am led to inquire, W hat is the true greatness o f American citizenship? In the days of Imperial Rome, the declaration, ‘I am a Roman citizen,’ was a passport to the respect and welcome throughout the civilized world. ‘I am an American citizen’ is a grander declaration. It is today the highest human title to honor and respect.”

Rev. Oliver A. Brown, a prominent Methodist clergyman, told the Wash ington Betas in 1892: “ N early thirty years have passed away since I was initiated into the mysteries o f our order. A t that time our society was among the youngest, and, I may add, among the feeblest, o f the Greek-letter societies, because the rebellion had severed from us the chapters in the South. But in that time, our society has grown as years have grown, until today it stands in the forefront with the strongest of those like organizations, in nearly all our great colleges and universities, which enrich our land and train our youth. A s childhood, and youth, and early manhood largely determine what are to be the character and worth of a man, so the early years of an organization ought to assure a word of prophecy concerning its after history............... Our motto holds forever before every Beta a lofty ideal. It summons us to the attainment of all that is highest and best in human life and character. And not only is this matter an inspiration, promising well for the future, but the conditions and requirements for membership in our order promise still more................These conditions were founded not on wealth, not on social rank................but upon an active brain and a good heart, and to these the doors o f Beta Theta P i have ever been open, and they have always received a cordial welcome. The result has been that in almost every university where the society has been situated the names of Betas are found at the head of the honorable roll of scholarship and deportment.”

Which may be aptly followed by the statement of Dr. Richard M cllvaine, made while president of Hampden-Sidney College, an institution of the old school: “ Inducted into the Beta Theta Pi fraternity when I was seventeen years old, in 1852, I can remember the influence which was exerted on me, teaching me to aspire for higher and better things than I had yet conceived of, and as I have lately learned that we have so many college presidents, it has seemed to me that perhaps we might account for this fact by their union with Beta Theta Pi when they were young: for if there is any human organization the principles o f which should be carried out by those entrusted with the responsibilities which devolve on the chief officers of our colleges, it is found in our order.”

Further testimony to the value of membership in the fraternity is found in the following remark of Dr. George W . F. Birch, himself a clergyman of experience and a long time professor: “ I claim fo r our fraternity the cultivation of manhood. Sincerity, purity, true moral excellencies, intellectual power, and gentlemanly instincts have, during all its existence, passed current among the disciples of W ooglin. The straight line to those things is the shortest in Beta-dom as well as in mathematics, and certainly a fraternity which numbers preachers by the hundred deserves the tribute from the preacher that the training extended under the principles of our order tends to a Christianity without cant. W e know the good that there is in our fraternity; the outside world knows it, fo r in the history of half a century is set the story o f what a good thing it is.”

Senator McDill, of Iowa, recalling his boyish experiences, told the alumni in 1892: “ I remember the old society and our little meetings in the Erodelphian H all with a great deal of pleasure. W e were informal sort of boys. I do not recollect what our ritual was. I believe we had some wonderful secrets................I think one o f the great advantages of being selected to membership in a fraternal society, at least to a

TH E TESTIM O N Y OF EXPERIENCE

modest boy, lies in the fact that he has been selected. There is many a boy who goes up to college from his country home without any great appreciation of himself or the possibilities that are within him, and when he finds able and scholarly men— young men of his age— selecting him, it kindles a fire in him that never ceases to burn.”

This may be fittingly supplemented by the opinion of Honorable James Lyon, of Virginia: “It has been twenty years since I was made a member o f this society. I have been present at many festive occasions, but they have proved to me the eternal fitness of this order. H ere we all greet one another as brothers; we recognize no state lin es; we recognize no sections, no divisions, but hand grips into hand, and eye looks in eye, and heart beats against heart— all loving, loyal Beta brothers.”

Stronger testimony to the value of the non-sectional and broadly national character of the organization is, however, found in the following reminis cence of Honorable J. S. Wise, of Virginia, related at the Hoadly dinner in New Y o rk : -a

“ Toward the fraternity I feel an unfeigned tenderness, the result of early asso ciation. I joined at the University of Virginia, in the autumn of 1865. Many of you are too young to remember so far back, and but few of you who are old enough can appreciate the circumstances by which I was surrounded when I joined it. A s a youth of nineteen, I had escaped the surrender of General Lee, and, following the fortunes o f the Confederacy, I had joined the army of General Johnston, and sur rendered in North Carolina. Thence I returned to Virginia, with nothing left but a ragged Confederate uniform and a good constitution. The war had interrupted the education of all the southern youth, but we lost no time in taking up the broken thread, and October found me a student at the U niversity of Virginia. T he old place more resembled a camp than a college, for most of us still wore our uniforms, being too poor to buy other clothes. Our conversation and thoughts partook still o f a decidedly military flavor, for what was to be the future of our section and our people was the all-absorbing question o f the hour. T he people beyond the Potomac were still our fo e s ; the passions of war had not subsided, and the clouds had not rolled a w a y ; men were still begrimed with powder, their cheeks were still flushed with the ter rible passion of y e a rs; the silence succeeding the roar o f battle was oppressive, and no voice of love had come from out the gloom. Imagine, then, to yourselves what impression was made upon a boy so situated by the first fraternal messages which came to us from our northern and western brethren. T hey were not written in the cold and form al diplomacy of men contending for advantage of position. The messages came with the fresh buoyancy of boys. T hey were inquiries for old comrades and friends; they were words of love and encouragement; they were filled with the wish that our chapter should be re-established, and the old fraternity and cordiality should be restored, without condition or reserve. In every line and in every sentence we were made to realize that the bitterness o f the conflict was over, that there were those in the land o f our enemies who yearned to be once more our brethren and our friends. “ These first messages came to my ear with a sweetness gratifying and refreshing as the bluebird’s note at the break o f day, when the fevered night is passing off. The call was as tender and timid as the voice of the piping quail, when it invites the reassembling o f the scattered covey after the havoc of the sportsmen has swept on to other fields. “ In all these things youth is more impressible a thousand times than manhood, and youthful impressions survive a thousand things o f more importance which happen in our later years. I entered into the spirit of our college fraternity with great en thusiasm, enjoyed the association with its members very greatly, and severed my connection with it upon leaving college with more regret, perhaps, than I felt at the dissolution of any other college tie. E ver since, when the opportunity has been afforded, it has given me great pleasure to join in our meetings, thus reviving memories of a very happy period of life, and the recollection of many noble fellows from whom the lapse of years has separated me; and renewing to some extent the youthful feel ings, hopes, aspirations, and uncertainties which make that the happiest period in the life of every man.”

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Honorable Andrew J. Poppleton, Michigan ’51, who was one of the chapter which left the university rather than surrender his membership in the fraternity, and was orator at the convention of 1878, touchingly alluded to it as follow s: “ It is with no slight degree of hesitancy that I have undertaken the duty before me. It is twenty-seven years since I have spoken, eye to eye, with any segment of the, brotherhood in whose safe guardianship my unused feet were first planted upon t e ever-living rock o f youth, fidelity, and honor. Then it was to announce my choice between the renunciation o f my sacred associations, and the shelter o f the university,

JO H N M. H A R L A N , Centre ’50 Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court, 1880-1911 since grown so great and honored, of which I was a member. And if, across the waste of that long pilgrimage, there comes tonight a single recollection which glides into my soul with a soothing, healing, tranquilizing power, it is the thought that, boy as I was, I never counted recantation as a possibility, but coolly, patiently, firmly, in flexibly, and unflinchingly kept the faith, and with a heart not over troubled went out to face the world and its frowns without the benediction of the university of my native state. I believed then I was right, and year by year, as my horizon has broadened and life has one by one yielded its rewards to strenuous endeavor, the conviction has deepened until that crucial hour seems the inspiration o f a lifetime.”

TH E TESTIM O N Y OF EXPERIENCE

ri No one, perhaps, had wider experience in life than Schuyler Colfax, and IK 'in 1882 he wrote: “ In my wandering life over the country, lecturing from N ew England to Nebraska, the pleasantest hours of all, the brightest and best remembered, are when I have } happened to be where there is a chapter of our fraternity, with whose members I I generally spend a social hour most delightfully after the lecture. And it rejoices I P me to find everywhere that not only are Beta principles elevating, inspiring, ennobling, indeed, but that from East to W est our brethren are resolved that no other college society shall excel ours in the cultivation and development of the loftiest principles of true American manhood. And since my initiation by Delta chapter, in July, 1854, nearly thirty years ago, I have never known the order to be stronger in its personnel, enjoying more healthful growth, and with so many excellent prospects fo r even a more successful future. So may it b e !”

The opinions of two early fellow-workers in Ohio may be of interest. Stanley Matthews, of the old Cincinnati chapter, wrote in 1881 : “ There are but few survivors now of the young men who, like myself, became members of the society in the earliest days of its organization, but I recall them to mind with the memory of many delightful associations. It is pleasant to think that they have perpetuated their memories and influence in the society of Beta Theta Pi, which, beyond their expectations, has so grown and flourished. Esto perpetual”

Which may be followed by the remark of Governor Hoadly, in 1887: “Am ong the recollections of my college days, the most pleasant are those connected with what was then the Gamma chapter at W estern Reserve College. Forty-three years, nearly, have passed since I left college, but my affection for the society has not weakened with time.”

And he further said upon the occasion of his welcome to New York by the Beta Theta P i : “W hen the project of giving me a public reception by the Betas of N ew Y o rk was first broached, I did not feel that I was worthy of it, but after reading over a bundle of Beta correspondence of my early days, I could not have the heart to refuse anything that would bring a band of Betas together, young and old, and permit us to revive the pleasant associations that cluster around the name. The old letters revived anew in me the old spirit and feeling that I had in those days, and the same old friendships and enthusiasms of my college days came back to me. It seems a little strange to me now, when viewed in the light of my maturer judgement, how it was that I could have had such a violent and relentless opposition to Alpha Delta Phi, with which my letters o f 1843 and ’44 seem filled. The Alphas were our only foes, and we went fo r their scalps with all the enthusiasm imaginable. A t first, violent opposition to secret societies upon the part of the faculty obtained. Our chapter was the outcome of a local society, called the Boannergian Club, and their name, “ Sons of Thunder,” fitted the case exactly. The Alphas were good students, and by their literary exercises and high scholarship won a truce from the faculty, but the Betas came in for the wrath that was left over. W hat was to be done to get out o f this difficulty? It struck some member of the Beta chapter that the solution lay in having the Betas take the college honors away from the Alphas, and the “ Sons of Thunder” took to their books, and before the next term had set in the Alphas were distanced. It was done, and it was done by such men as our distinguished scientific friend, Professor John S. Newberry, who now sits at my side. A fte r we had raised our scholarship above the Alphas, we invited the president o f our college to investigate the workings of Beta Theta Pi, and he did, the result being that he became a member of our chapter.”

BETA LORE

John I. Covington, at the dinner given to him at Chicago in 1894, shortly before his death, paid this tribute to the fraternity to whose service he had given some of his life’s best efforts: “ F or more than fifty years Beta Theta Pi has been the sign manual of noble, manly friendship. It has stimulated our best aspirations and sustained our loftiest ambitions. It has been a privilege to live under its influence, and if any one has enjoyed the privileges of our fraternity without being made a stronger and purer man, the fault lies in his nature and not in Beta Theta Pi. In the ocean there runs, unmarked by color and undiscoverable by the eye, a river, born under the tropic skies, which carries on its broad bosom life, health, and comfort far beyond the limits of perpetual ice. The iceberg bows before its gentle airs, the frost-bound vessels grow fresh within its margin waters. Quietly, irresistibly, continuously, the current bears its beneficences along. Thus quietly, thus continuously in Beta Theta Pi, nows the gulf stream of unselfish friendship. W hat frozen shores it has covered with verdure, what health-restoring powers it has borne to chilled lives, will never be fully known until the mysteries of our human life are made clear in the light o f eternity.”

Governor Odell of New York, on the occasion of the dinner tendered to him in 1901 at New York, expressed himself as follows: “ It is over a quarter of a century ago since I became a Beta. It was down in the Panhandle of western Virginia— at Bethany College— where we had a chapter which those who were j ealous of our success said was so small that we could all sleep in one bed. However, if we were few in number, we were great in enthusiasm. There was a great deal o f good fellowship in all of our meetings which I believe were surrounded with more mystery than is known to the Betas of today. “I spent but one year there at Bethany, and then I came to Columbia College, as devoted and loyal to Beta Theta Pi as I had been at Bethany. I spent, in fact, a whole year in endeavoring to secure a charter for the establishment of a chapter at Columbia, but I failed. The W est did not look upon us in the East with the favor then that it does now..............It is pleasant to look back upon one’s boyhood days, and as I sat here tonight I began to think that I was getting old. It seemed an age ago since I took part in the ceremonies of our chapter at Bethany. “ I believe that college training and associations, particularly those developed in college fraternities like our own, fit us for the business which we are called upon to face in the world. I have found men whom I knew in college, and who I thought at the time were not quite up to the mark, but who, by their close attention to their duties, have become among the most prominent men o f our locality. Particularly is this true o f those who have entered the political field.”

And Governor Beaver of Pennsylvania, who was ill at home on the o c-' casion of the Odell dinner, wrote as follows, showing how the fraternal tie exerts its influence where known, in a manner the uninitiated can never realize: “ The strong hold which the fraternity feeling has upon me is well illustrated in the case of your honored guest. I felt interested as a Republican in his election as governor of the great Empire State, but it was the interest which I would have had in any other man whom I believed worthy to occupy the distinguished place to which he has been called by his fellow-citizens; but when in the course of the cam paign I learned that he was a member of Beta Theta Pi my feelings underwent a radical change. I immediately became personally and intensely interested in his success, and regretted that the proprieties which surround me in my official position and w ork forbade my taking any active part in a political campaign, otherwise I would have gladly volunteered for service as a spell-binder in New York. “ I f I were permitted to say anything upon the interesting occasion, it would be a word to and of and for the fraternity. A s we grow older, we recognize what impresses itself upon the mind of any college man who will stop to think— that

TH E TESTIM O N Y OF EXPERIENCE

college friendships are among the closest and the dearest which are formed in this life. The importance, therefore, of care in selecting them and of having them of such a character as will endure and strengthen through life emphasizes the part which fraternity life plays in helping to make the selection. Modern fraternity life, which brings the members of each chapter together in their own home and under their own vine, with dear old W ooglin as their patron saint, with Beta colors on the flag pole, the Beta standard regulating the selection o f members, Beta principles

J A M E S A . B E A V E R , Washington-Jefferson ’56 Governor of Pennsylvania, 1887-1891 governing their intercourse one with another, and Beta love and sympathy and help fulness pervading the atmosphere of the entire home, is at once the sweetest flower and the most perfect fruitage of the social side o f college life. It not only binds men together in mutual sympathy and helpfulness at the most impressionable period of life, but it lays the foundations for those strong and lasting friendships which bind heart to heart and life to life throughout the earthly pilgrimage and will, we are assured, be continued into the beyond, and will furnish a not unimportant part of the enjoyments from which all that is sordid and selfish shall be eliminated and in which ‘we shall know even as also we are known.’ From this thought there comes to those o f us who are farther along in the journey of life the lesson of helpfulness to our younger brethren who, in their several places, are endeavoring to live to illustrate and to exem plify the principles of Beta Theta Pi.”

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Governor Francis, of Missouri, president of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis in 1904, meeting the assembled delegates to the con vention, said: “ I have come to join in your good fellowship, and I ask you to permit me to participate in your good time as one o f yourselves. I hope that Beta Theta P i may prosper and that every member may feel that, whatever satisfaction comes to him from his college life, an additional distinction has been given to him by reason of his relationship to the fraternity. “W ashington University chapter, in its early days when I was one of its active members, tried to have the best men there were in the university. I am glad to say that those after that time have kept up the standard— this should be the ambition of every chapter. “A s the pioneers of the W est led in the opening up of the country and compelled the Louisiana Purchase— the great event in history which we here celebrate— so Beta Theta Pi has led in the W est and will lead everywhere.”

Governor Bates of Massachusetts, speaking in 1895 at one of the annual New England dinners, paid his tribute to the value and standing of the fra ternity in the following w ords: “ The most lonesome place on earth is in the heart that finds itself surrounded by a seething sea o f humanity, when not a face is friendly, and not a voice is known, and where every form is a stranger. Unhappy he who, in pursuit o f ambi tion, has climbed to such dizzy heights that, above his fellow men, he is left alone; unhappy the monarch who has not sympathy or association with his subjects. Unhappy he who leaves the home on the hillside to go forth into the world to seek learning, ambitious, brave and honest, when he finds himself under new surroundings where every being is a stranger and no eye responds to his.” “ It is to such a one that our college fraternity appeals, with its unrevealed mysteries, its warm fireside, and its genial manhood. For fifty years it stretches into the past, and the honorable record of its achievement is an open book. Today, the ideal fraternity must have a past about which traditions gather. It must have been a past elevating tendencies which show worthy products. The fraternity we honor has never had occasion to be ashamed of its history.” “ The mysteries of a fraternity must be such as to lift up and not degrade those to whom they are made known. He who dares do all that becomes a man, need not hesitate, when invitation is extended, to penetrate to their deepest depths the mysteries o f Beta Theta Pi.”

James Lindsay Gordon, one of the few members of the short lived but brilliant chapter at William and Mary, told how his short chapter training had efficiently taught him the mission of the fraternity. A t the Odell din ner, he said : “ This fraternity, in my judgment, has a higher mission than the mere passing of an idle hour; the mere congregation o f young men for social enjoyment, because, as the Governor has said tonight in his opening speech, it is in that formative period o f our lives at college that we first drink in those principles which are most apt to last and endure. The love and affection which the Georgian of today pledges to the boy from Pennsylvania around the shrine of W ooglin is carried into after-life. It is the threshold o f that high and noble resolve which is first formed in boyhood, and to which, as much as to anything else, is due the healing of the wound which once tore asunder the sections of this nation, and that the tendons of the great republic grow firmer and stronger than they ever were before.”

William C. Sprague, Denison ’81, president of the Correspondence School of Law and editor of the American Boy, thus expressed his belief in the fraternity at the dedication banquet of the Michigan chapter house: “W hat, my gray-haired brother, would you ask in exchange for what your fraternity has given you in the years that are past? W hat other relations, aside from those of your home and your God, have tended so much to keep you gentle and kindly, and withal manly, as have your fraternity relations?

W H AT M Y FR A TE R N ITY MEANS TO ME i j I

“ Believe me, brothers, when I say that my fraternity early entered into my life as one of its most pow erful and enduring influences. I f it is true that every man we meet leaves an impression on our characters for good or for ill, I must give to my fraternity the credit fo r a great deal of whatever good there may be in me, since, happily, through one-third of a century my closest companionships in school, in business, in church, in play, and in w ork have been my fraternity brothers; and right here let me record that never once in all the thirty-two years that have elapsed since the pink and blue were pinned upon my breast has a Beta played me false. Men have cheated, deceived, wronged me, but never has a man who wore the diamond the wreath and the stars turned his back upon me or betrayed my trust. Brothers, it seems to me much like carrying coals to Newcastle, or lending brightness to the sun to preach ideal fraternity to a gathering of the men of Beta Theta Pi. W hat organization can be other than ideal with such men in close fellowship as those who form the rank and file of our great fraternity? W h y must I talk ideal fraternity to Lambda chapter when its backbone, ay, its very heart, is of the stuff of Grant, and Beal, and Chandler? “ I have traveled much and have seen many fraternity men. I would sooner make my bed with the old fellows o f Lambda than with the greatest and best of barbarian song and story.”

And we close this symposium with a sentiment in verse which leaves nothing more to be expressed: A SO N G O F BR O TH ER H O O D Read at the banquet o f Chicago Chapter, April 5, 1921. W e ’re born of one great mother, And we drink one common air, And brother joined with brother Sings away all carking care. Chorus— F or the stars once sang together a sweet fraternal song, And the rivers, rushing seaward, their harmonies prolong; A thousand leaves are murmurous in the music of one tree. And Mother-nature lulls to sleep one great humanity. W e toil and moil together, And we think on anxious y e a rs; In storm and stress of weather Let us sing away our fears.— Chorus Brothers in what’s before us, Brothers in birth and death, One living sky bends o’er us, Let us sing with joyous breath. Chorus— F or the stars once sang together a sweet fraternal song, And the rivers, rushing seaward, their harmonies prolong; A thousand leaves are murmurous in the music of one tree, And Mother-nature lulls to sleep one great humanity. H o race

F is k e ,

Beloit

’82

W H AT M Y FRATERN ITY MEANS TO ME “The qualities which I count most valuable in my own fraternity expe riences are those of friendship, companionship, and mutual assistance. Con stantly living and associating with our brothers was not to be had in the early days of the fraternity. Today the majority of our members live in the chapter houses. To my mind nothing can develop character as much as the living together, the association of young men under all moods and conditions. Insight into the personalities and intellects of our brothers

BETA LORE

aids us in the shaping of our own lives. There is a development of moral and social culture mutually beneficial to all where the fraternity life is wholesome and clean.”— Colorado College “ A s I survey from the present vantage ground my fraternity experi ence in college, the most abiding, helpful, and real quality is that which came to me from the intimate, personal associations with the men in the chapter. I am convinced that my own life, my own character, my own outlook were distinctly influenced by the men with whom I studied, with whom I boarded, with whom I lived in the college dormitory. Honor, courage, private duty, public duty, religious duty, patriotism, private and public morals were discussed and conclusions reached as sincerely, as posi tively and as definitely as it was possible for young men in their twenties ever to do. The keeping of a pledge, the sanctity of a promise, maintaining a religious silence on occasions, were as definitely instilled and as constantly maintained as any creed however great, however dear, however sacred. All these things have today in my own soul an eternal place. They cannot be removed.”— Denison “ In reviewing my college experience, the benefit of close association with fellow students, the contact with alumni, the glimpse of an ideal, too big for sectionalism and too noble for pettiness, the incentive to work and accom plish in the knowledge that others were interested in what I attempted, the training in tolerance of other men’s opinions, crowd into memory as con tributions of Beta Theta Pi to my equipment. These, I believe, are com mon experiences of Betas which run through succeeding college generations with continuing strength and vigor.”— Beloit “ The best of all concrete fraternity benefits are those which the young men derive from the older ones, or which the oncoming men get from con tact with their predecessors. The contacts between men on the same rung of the ladder are valuable, and these the fraternity helps to refine; but for these the fraternity house is a mere convenience. They can be gotten else where ; while the contacts of young men with older ones within the fraternal circle involve benefits such as are traded in no other bourse on earth.” — Washington and Jefferson “ In my old chapter of Beta Theta Pi everything was good— life, ideals, and morals. The ties of friendship I there formed have been dearer to me than any others in later years. Though I may not see a companion of those days oftener than once in twenty years, and some I have never seen since I left the university, still I often dream those days over again, and my heart warms toward each one in those happy memories. I would not be without them for the world.”— Michigan “ A s I see it now, forty years afterwards, the most valuable thing in my personal fraternity experience was the frank kindly criticism of upper classmen whom I looked up to and admired; the inculcation of a standard that I felt I must uphold when I became an upperclassman myself. I was green and raw, and fraternity men helped me as professors could not. — Virginia

W H AT M Y FR A TE R N ITY MEANS TO ME

“ M y fraternity experience in college was very valuable to me through the contact that it permitted, and indeed enjoined, with a group of very fine boys. Without the fraternity I would have missed this altogether; for I doubt very much if any other form of organization could have taken its place. By nature I was not then, nor am I now, what might be termed socially vigorous. The fraternity brought to me certain friends I would never have found in any other way, not only in Beta Theta Pi but in other fraternities as well. For, as I found, membership in one of the big frater nities promptly admits to membership in the larger, yet unified group of college fraternity men. I am not for a moment one who believes that all the socially desirable men of our colleges have been gathered up into fraternities, but I am sure they are much harder to find outside than in.”— Chicago “ I am ‘an only child.’ I entered the chapter selfish, jealous of my per sonal belongings and privileges, and absolutely ignorant of how to live in close and amicable contact with other men. If I were to cherish only one thing I gained through my fraternity experience, I believe it would be the ability to ‘give and take’ without effort and to exist in pleasant companion ship through equable adjustments with my fellow men.”— Oklahoma “ It seems to me, looking back to my fraternity life, that the part which in retrospect looms up as most valuable is just where life in the fraternity circle approached family life. In the family one looks for sympathy, com panionship, inspiration, and help. In the family each of us lives not for self alone but for others— not for the present alone, but always with eyes looking to the future. In some such way I look upon my fraternity ex periences. There was my inspiration; there was the companionship and sym pathy; there I was living in a community of interests and working for the welfare of the group; there I was planning not for the present but for the future. The loyalty, the comradeship and good fellowship, the living and working together as a group sharing each others’ triumphs and trials— these, in retrospect, appear the outstanding and most worth while remembrances of my early fraternity days.”— Minnesota “ There’s youth-—a never-ending association with youth, that almost seems to make the years stand still while the gray hairs come— and go. I believe I would put that first; for youth brings with it enthusiasms and new view points and a fresher, cleaner outlook on life. Then there have been the associations and friendships, lasting and treasured ones, with the meetings with fellows that otherwise I would hardly ever see, the friendships that grow closer as time drifts by. There is a clinging to ideals now when ideals are most needed— to the old-time honored ones of service, unselfish service, of honor, of truth— all these and the teaching of them so that they remain with us in later years when we need them more. There is the incentive to make good because the fellows all believe in you and are back of you. There is the teaching of team play and fair play. Oh, yes, there are many more that memory prompts; but these are not single experiences, rather they are continuing ones. And so I think I must come back as a choice of them all to the one great privilege of Friendship— youthful friend ships, intimate, continuing friendships, friendships where nothing material is asked and nothing material is given but where the tie is the stronger one of the spirit.”— Washington at St. Louis

Chapter I V — Stories o f Sentim ent

THE UNW RITTEN SONGS Kenneth Rogers, Syracuse ’17, was an affectionate soul, making friends readily and cherishing them. “ Dreary the man who spurns his comrades, stumbling along his lonely way,” was his idea. He was happier always when he joined his brothers, perhaps singing a Beta lay he himself had writ ten. This friendliness was marked in all his relationships in life, particu larly in his attitude toward the boys in the preparatory school where he taught or the young men in college. For anyone who wore the Beta badge he was open-hearted at once. His Beta songs are popular everywhere. They include “ Marching Along,” “ The Beta Stars,” “The Sons of the Dragon,” “ The Land of Canine,” “ To the Pledge,” “ Old Beta’s Praise,” “ The Beta Chorus,” and an arrangement of “ ’Neath the Elms of Old Miami.” He was never fully satisfied with any of his songs, but hoped to work them over and over until they realized his ambition for them. Just before he started on the western trip which ended his active career he had made preliminary drafts of two songs he was planning. One was the first stanza of a serenade. It was suggested by a thought of the marvelous pink and blue colors in the sky in some wonderful sunset. He intended to write a second stanza, but all he sent was th is: M Y B E T A G IR L “W e turn to the east for the dawn of hope In the morning twilight hour, And the sun’s full ray at noon of day Is the symbol of might and pow er; But we turn our hearts at the close of day T o the miracle of the west, W here the sun’s last beams transport our dreams Beyond the horizon’s crest. Chorus “ There is pink and blue in the sunset glow A s I gaze at the western sky; That twilight glow tells of love, I know, And of days that before me lie; For the girl I love wears the pink and blue, She’s a Beta girl, you see, And that sunset glow is a love rainbow For my Beta girl and m e !”

Like most Betas he was tired of the salutation used at banquets, “ What’s the matter with, etc.,” and was trying to get just the right swing for some thing to be sung with vigor and vim, the name of any favored Beta to be inserted after the word brother. He asked judgment on this: A TO AST “H ere’s a health to you, Brother -------W ooglin smiles on a son like y o u ; For you’re fair and square And your heart’s right there: Y o u ’re a regular friend, true blue.”

RECOLLECTIONS

W e shall never sing the unwritten songs “ Ken” was dreaming about as he thought and worked for Beta Theta Pi. But we are sure that his spirit through the years that are ahead will go marching along in Beta Theta Pi, as his genial presence and his fine service for the fraternity are held in grateful memory.

RECOLLECTIONS OF A PERFECT D A Y B y H . S h e r id a n B a k e t e l,

Dartmouth

’9 5

The glorious sun of a perfect autumn Sabbath poured through the lead ed windows of the chapter house and lighted up the bright, intelligent faces of twenty-five young college men. They stood or sat around the large table in the cheery living-room. In the deep old fashioned New England fire place a wood fire snapped and crackled and poured forth its welcome heat. In front of one of the windows sat the Bishop, a dignified, but withal a very human man. The sun set forth his iron-grey locks and mellowed the fires of reli gion and humanity that flashed from his eyes as he talked to the boys. He, too, had worn the diamond and the three stars and had worshipped, even as have many other bishops, prelates and men of God, at the shrine of Wooglin. The boys listened to his words with keenest interest, for that morning his sermon in the college chapel had held his collegiate audience almost spellbound. The Bishop had a message from the W ord of God and it seemed as if he had been inspired, so aptly did it appeal h . S. B A K E T E L to the hearts of his brethren in the bonds of the faith. A t the luncheon table the Bishop was at his conversational best. In the great room his words of counsel touched the heart strings of his youthful auditors. He asked the boys to sing, for theirs is a singing chapter. A sweettongued quartet, members of the University Glee Club, sang one of the noble old hyms of the Church, a hymn that has for generations quickened the pulses of the faithful. Then followed a tender college song and two stirring and melodious fraternity songs. It was the Bishop’s turn to be entranced and his face reflected his de light as his soul drank in the harmony of those fresh, young voices. He asked the chapter to sing and the song of the great brotherhood that followed has never been rendered more effectively. The echoes of that sweet refrain seemed to touch the vaulted dome of the heavens, which sent them back into that beautiful room and into the hearts of the singers. Ecclesiastical duties called the Bishop and he prepared for his departure. The boys surrounded him and he clasped in fervid fraternal grip the hand of each young man. Then standing in the midst of these college gentlemen, the Bishop raised his hand in blessing. Every man stood with bowed head and reverent mien while this shepherd of many flocks asked God’s blessing on them, their fraternity, their college and fellow men.

BETA LORE

It was a most impressive scene, one seldom witnessed in any fraternity house and a fitting climax to an uplifting day. The Bishop builded better than he knew, and the imprint of his visit is not likely to be soon effaced. The Bishop was Wilbur Patterson Thirkield, Ohio Wesleyan ’76, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the chapter was the Mu Epsilon of Beta Theta Pi, and the chapter house was the beautiful Raimond Duy Baird Memorial at Wesleyan University.

THE PINK AND BLUE For nearly a half century now (1928) pink and blue have been the official colors of the fraternity. How they were chosen was told by Walter E. Dennison, Ohio Wesleyan ’77, in a letter to William Raimond Baird under date April 30, 1911: “ I have wondered why your Handbook of Beta Theta Pi, so explicit in everything else, should contain no index mention of the colors of the fra ternity, Pink and Blue, adopted by the convention of 1879 at Cincinnati after a hot fight near the close. M ajor Ransom espoused the royal purple and seemed to need only the ballot to determine the discussion in his favor. Theta and Delta chapters by a mere coincidence had for many years worn the same colors, Pink and Blue. Paul W ilcox, De Pauw Jyg, and myself of Ohio Wesleyan ’77, were assistant secretary and secretary, respectively, of that convention. Our duties kept us from joining the discussion until just before the vote. M ajor Ransom, the then greatest individual power in the fraternity, seemed to have everything his own way; but the pros pect of seeing our beloved colors go down was too much for the insurgent blood of W ilcox and myself and we literally jumped in with what I, at least, remember as impassioned speeches and won the day for our beloved Pink and Blue. “ M y sweetheart then, and my wife now, had for years made up the bows, of Pink and Blue for Theta. I wrote to her of our victory and requested enough bows to supply every active chapter with a sample. I prepared a letter which was mimeographed and sent to the secretary of every chapter with a sample bow of the colors in their most delicate and true shades, as prepared by her loving hands. “ To you, as a faithful chronicler, I write this, believing in the wisdom of preserving every sentiment that has had so much to do with the forma tion of the fraternity character. This preservation of the sentiments of Beta Theta Pi has kept me enthusiastic here on the outposts of Betadom for thirty-one years with never a chance to enjoy the glories of another convention. I seldom miss a gathering of Betas here and am proud to show by my example the ever living force of our pure ritual.”

“From scenes o f life’s conflicts and triumphs we turn A gain on the altar of Beta to burn T he incense of love, and our pledges renew, T o honor old W ooglin, whatever we do.” D a v i d H. M o o r e ,

i8 6 0

AFTER M ANY YEARS

IN A PULLMAN SECTION A. J.

P r ie s t ,

Idaho

’ 18

Lewis Kenneth Jacobsen, Utah ’23, known as “Jake” to hundreds of Betas in the inter-mountain West, sailed from Vancouver, British Columbia, the latter part of January, 1928, for Sydney, Australia, having accepted an offer to undertake, for the Mount Isa Mines, Ltd., at Mt. Isa, reached via Townsville, the development of a large body of lead-zinc ore in the state of Queensland. While he was in New Y ork City superintending the pur chase of $15,000 worth of laboratory equipment which was to make the long trip to Australia with him, he had an interesting tale to tell of the quaint ways of that faithful servant of moving picture scenario writers, the Nymph Coincidence. “ This attractive young chap,” said he, “ had the Pullman berth just above mine coming East from Denver and I think he spotted my Beta pin at about the same time that I noticed his Beta ring. In the course of the pleasant talk that followed, he pulled a letter from his pocket and read me a para graph or two in order to show me what a fine, interesting Beta had been president of the Minnesota chapter a few years back. “And then he said, ‘Can you guess where that old such-and-such is now ? Heaven help him, he’s way down in Sydney, Australia.’ Out came my note book for that name and address. It’s V. I Mann, 100 Clarence Street, Sydney. Maybe you think I ’m not going to look that boy up my first day in Sydney!” V . I. Mann is, of course, Victor Irving Mann, Minnesota ’25, famous hockey player and ardently enthusiastic follower of Wooglin. It’s pleasant to think that these two good Betas will be meeting down beneath the South ern Cross. There’s every likelihood that a fine friendship will result from this agreeable prank of Genevieve (isn’t that her name?) Coincidence.

AFTER M AN Y YEAR S E

dw ard

a g u ir e ,

Cornell ’84

“ The years may go, but our hearts still know That such friendship can never d ie ; For the love we bear is the love we share In old Beta Theta P i.” — K e n n e th

R o gers,

Syracuse

’ 17

You older men, how many times have you had it happen to you ? Some thing came to you out of the past, something you cherished long ago and then allowed to drift away, a pleasant memory only haunting you indis tinctly like a dream, until suddenly, unchanged by the years, it appeared again vivid as in the old days of yore. When that something is a friendship, how much greater the thrill of renewal! Such an experience came to me a short time ago. It is too good to keep to myself alone. The editor forwarded me a letter addressed in care of the fraternity magazine. The writer of the letter inquired cautiously as to my identity. Had I taken part in his induction into the clan of Wooglin? Did I remember pledging him to Beta Delta of Beta Theta Pi? The signature was that of

BETA LORE

William Mason Harris ( “ Scotty” ), Cornell ’87. His initiation had taken place during my senior year, 1884, and I had known him that short year and then had joined the ranks of the alumni, and our paths had not crossed again. Did I remember ? A surge of memory of that happy year and of this good brother came upon me. You understand. And now, I must tell you something about “ Scotty” Harris. He had attended an initiation at the Sigma chapter house and a Stevens brother had given him a copy of the Beta Theta Pi. He saw my name, and his letter of magic effect followed. Other letters have come. “ Scotty” resides at 73 North Arlington Avenue, East Orange, New Jersey, and most of his life since his college days has been spent in that locality. He com mutes to New Y ork for business, where he has been for years in the traffic department of the D. L. and W . R. R. He married the sweetheart of his youth, Miss Eva May De Groat. They have a son, Scott De Groat Harris, and are justly proud of their ac quired daughter and a lovely granddaughter. L ife has been kind to the Harris family. Never has “ Scotty” forgotten his alma mater nor his fraternity. He remembers the chapter singing, with the versatile “ Ted” Emory, ’86, at the piano, and recalls the men and events, even the jokes of that year of 1884. Best of all, these talks on paper are to continue; for we have promised to keep the correspondence going; and that’s why this story has been written.

AN A LA SK A N M YSTERY The historian of Pi chapter, working to clear up every doubtful case in the Indiana roster, has received from a Portland, Oregon, brother of Homer Leonard, Indiana ’87, a letter telling the following story: “ In reply to your letter of January 10, 1925, inquiring about my brother, Homer Leonard, I am sorry to inform you that we feel certain that he is not alive. The last information we had from him was a letter which he had written to my sister. This letter was dated July 14, 1914, and written from Fairbanks, Alaska. He requested my sister not to answer his letter, as he was preparing to come out on a visit and expected to be on his way out before a letter would reach him. He was leaving Fairbanks at that time down the Yukon and we learned that he had been collecting money at various points which was due him. W e traced him to twenty-eight miles below Ruby. A Mr. Lewis had a conversation with him at that point. Mr. Lewis wrote us that Homer told him that he was going over to some mines not far away and expected to return in a few days. His disappearance has" been published in all the newspapers from Fairbanks to Nome. W e have taken up the matter with the United States Government authorities, United States Marshals and deputies at various points, the postmasters, Pioneer Association, and others in and around Ruby, Alaska. These people all express the opinion that he has met death by accident or has been murdered for his money, as it was known that he had considerable money in his possession. I have had parties trying to find out more about it ever since his disappearance and am continuing the search. I find it is not an uncom mon occurrence for parties to disappear that way by accident or unknown things happening to them.” (S. M. Leonard, January 15, I 925-)

AROUND TH E COUNCIL FIRE

AROUND THE COUNCIL FIRE By R

ic h a r d

H. R

alsto n

• Twenty-five alumni, including District Chief Ronald F. Moist; Fred Dean, composer of the West Virginia University school song; and William H. Kendrick, founder of the Four-H camps, met in August, 1927, at the historic old mill where “ Stonewall” Jackson ground grist and played as a boy. The farm on which the mill stands has been converted into the larg est Four-H Camp in the world— the place where the farm youth of West Virginia are receiving training for future citizenship. And this great plant—

B E T A B R A V E S A R O U N D T H E C O U N C IL F IR E

which is being copied by most other eastern states— was conceived of and founded by a Beta, William H. Hendrick, West Virginia ’01. A splendid dinner was served in the camp dining hall, which is a replica of Washington’s home at Mount Vernon. Following this the group ad journed to the woods near the camp where, in an imitation Indian council circle— a part of the camp equipment— the alumni meeting was held. It was indeed a wonderful feeling to be sitting around the flickering blaze looking into the faces of Betas— brothers— from four different colleges. A s the meeting opened Brother Kendrick told of the Four-H work, and something of the methods of the plant where the meeting was being held. He told of the tradition that the old rails which enclose the council circle were cut by General Jackson. He concluded by telling what Beta Theta Pi had meant to him. The business of the evening was to discuss plans for the coming rush

BETA LORE

ing season, and it must be remarked here that from the results of the rush the meeting was most successful in this respect. Besides this, old acquaintance was renewed, and the spirit of Wooglin was surely at hand when the twenty-five brothers joined in singing the Fra ternity doxology.

ON THE TRACK OF THE VIKING R

obert

a r im e r ,

Illinois

’0 7

The October 1925, number of Yachting carried an editorial about William Washburn Nutting, Purdue ’0 6, which will interest Betas every where. He was a great adventurer leading an exciting life with his deepsea cruising in small boats. A good many articles by him have been pub lished in Yachting in recent years. For some time he was editor of Motor Boating: In college he was an excellent student, winning election to Tau Beta Pi Engineering honor society. The editorial which follows tells of his fate: “ Something more than a year ago William Washburn Nutting and his three companions sailed from Julianahaab, Greenland, in the little cutter Leiv Eirikson, on what was to be the last leg of a voyage of which he had been dreaming for many years— namely, following the track of the Vikings of a thousand years ago on their venturous explorations to the northern coasts of this continent. Since the Leiv dropped down the bleak Greenland harbor and disappeared seaward on that September 8, 1924, no word has come from ship or crew, and those of us who have been hoping against hope that the little vessel would yet turn up on the coast of Baffin Land, or on northern Labrador, reluctantly have come to the conclusion that there are now no more grounds for hope. And so it seems that the time has come when we must write finis to that brave voyage and acknowl edge that the little vessel and her daring crew have made the port of missing ships. “ It is idle to speculate on what may have been her ultimate fate or how her crew met their end. Those of us who knew and loved ‘Bill’ know that whatever the end, he and those with him met it as gallant sailormen have met it before, ever since brave men have sailed and conquered the sea. It would be typical of Nutting to meet the end with fortitude and with a spirit that lived up to the best traditions of the sea. His actions in the little Typhoon when she was nearly lost in a wicked November gale in 1920, prove this. But this knowledge does not in any degree lessen the loss that everyone who knew ‘Bill’ will feel. The world will be the poorer for the loss of that venturesome, restless spirit, to whom the open sea was always calling. In an age when men are too apt to cling to soft ways of living, and the spirit of adventure and daring that drove our ancestors to discover half the earth seems dying out, we can ill afford to lose such men as Nutting.” “ H ere’s a song unknown to any, save those within our crew ; T he ‘Greeks’ know not the many, but the trusted and the true.”

GEORGE W ASN ’T INVITED

THE BOSUN’S M ATE On February 16, 1926, the big parade in New York was under way in honor of Captain Fried and his fellow heroes of the American Steamship, President Roosevelt, whose crew, a short time before had successfully faced every peril of the sea to save the crew of the sinking British steamer Antinoe in mid-Atlantic during one of the worst gales in many years. I Headed by an array of generals and admirals, and composed of soldiers, sailors and marines from the near by army posts, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and warships lying in New Y ork Harbor, the parade caused chills to tra verse the spinal columns of New Y ork’s usually blase crowds. In front of the Advertising Club on Park Avenue, stood, with hundreds j of others, the Dartmouth Chapter’s Alumni Counselor, H. Sheridan Baketel, Jr., ’20. The big parade stopped, and the Dartmouth Beta discovered I in a limousine one of familiar countenance and mien. “ Oh, you Bill B eers!” he shouted, and the limousine’s occupant looking out at the crowd, grinning cheerfully, responded “ Oh, you Sherry.” In a moment a hearty Beta grip was given by two old college mates, Dartmouth Betas. To the New Y ork hero worshippers Beers was the bosun’s mate of the President Roosevelt. To Dartmouth men and Betas he was Wilson Christian Beers, ’21, who in college days registered from 126 Walnut Street, Waterbury, Connecticut. He was on the football and track teams, and was one of the B ig Green’s outstanding athletes. Leaving college in his junior year, Beers entered the University of Maryland, from which institution he was graduated, and later he took a master’s degree from the same college. “ Big Bill” had always had a hankering for the sea, and a while ago had shipped as a sailor in the United American Line. February, 1926, found “ Big Bill” the bosun’s mate under Captain Fried. On the fateful night when volunteers were sought to attempt the almost impossible— to get a boat under the lee of the foundering Antinoe, this son of Wooglin was the first to step forward. The result makes one of the finest and bravest acts in the long and splendid annals of American seamanship. When the parade was over, a real Beta round-up coralled the former Dartmouth star. He was a bit bored by all the attention he had received for doing what he regarded as “ all in a day’s work,” but somewhat proudly displayed two of the several medals on his uniform coat. One was pinned there by His Britannic Majesty, King George V , and the other by the diminutive potentate of Manhattan, Mayor Walker of New York. The recipient was uncertain of which he was more proud.

GEORGE W ASN ’T INVITED In a popular novel by M ary S. Watts, entitled Nathan Burke, there is a passage beginning on page 164 which has interest for members of Beta Theta Pi, because it describes a type of incident which has more than once actually occurred in fraternity history. In a letter mainly devoted to the small talk of familiar correspondence the experience of the “ smart A leck” of the story while at Miami is recounted. Before the book is finished it is discovered that the said “ smart Aleck” turns out just about the way one

BETA LORE

might expect. The supposed letter, written presumably from Columbus, Ohio, is dated M ay 21, 184— . “ You seem surprised to hear that Georgie was at home, but he has been ever since Christmas I thought you knew it. W e sent him to Miami University in the fall you know but I soon saw from his letters that it was no place for him. So when he came home for the holidays we simply had him stay home and none of the professors have ever written to inquire or seemed to care in the least bit, which proves what Georgie says that they are all a set of perfect boors, no manners and no ideas of the world. He says that is what disgusted him almost from the start. The school is full of a lot of rough young fellows farmer boys and such from all over the country not at all the sort of associates we should select for George who has always had such naturally refined ways. George says you ought to see the style they dress pantaloons tucked into their boots and corduroy pea-jackets some of them. Y o u can see that they aren’t gentlemen he says. One example will give you an idea. They have some kind of a club just started that they call the Beta Theta Pi, which is a Hebrew word meaning “ the Brothers.” George told me when I asked him it’s perfectly wonderful what a taste for languages George has nothing’s too hard for him he told me Hebrew was quite easy to learn. Well he said to one of the boys in a perfectly polite and gracious way he would join this club and the boy just turned around and growled as rough as could be Better wait till you’re asked! And George says that was the last he ever heard of it so he knows that boy never mentioned it. The truth is George says there was a great deal of jealousy of him among all the boys in his class and of course that influenced the whole school. It is natural that those coarse young men should dislike anybody who is so well dressed and so much above them in appearance and position to say nothing of his leading his class all the time in studies. W e are in hopes it will be different at Kenyon College where we have decided to send him next fall. George is quite a young man now going out to see the girls every evening. I can scarcely believe that I am the mother of that great tall long-legged-thing. He has a latch-key which of itself makes him seem older.”

A BETA BANQUET IN W AR TIME W

alter

W . H

olt,

Denison

’ 13

In everyone’s Beta experiences there are some incidents which stand out above all others. On February 26, 1915, I added another to my list which is unique. The occasion was the banquet to the representatives of the chap ters in District III, assembled for the reunion in Toronto— guests of the Theta Zeta chapter. There were five men from chapters in the States present— Cornell, Col gate, Union, St. Lawrence and Syracuse each sending a fine representative Beta. I was the only other man from the States. M y acquaintance with the Theta Zeta chapter dates from last September, when I came to Toronto a perfect stranger. I was not exactly a perfect stranger, for I knew that there was a Beta chapter here, and I lost no time in looking them up, and lived at the house for six weeks. The Toronto men are a fine crowd and I am

[

A BETA BANQUET

sure that the representatives from the chapters in District III were well im pressed by them. The affair was held at the Lambton Golf Club a short distance from the city. The menu was like many another Beta banquet, but the toasts were un like those at any other I ever attended. To start with it was an enthusiastic crowd, and the sight of five men in the uniform of lieutenant impressed the men from the states greatly. Personally, I have grown accustomed to seeing khaki everywhere and so was not surprised. Unfortunate absences made the toasts very informal and almost impromptu. W ith true Beta courtesy Brother Maclean, toastmaster, pro posed as the first toast, “ His M ajesty the King, and His Excellency the Pres ident of the United States.” This met with a very cordial reception and was followed by a verse of “ God Save the K ing” and a verse of “ America.” Frank Malone responded to the toast to the fraternity; J. Skinner spoke for the active chapter, and Norman Caudwell for the alumni. There were numerous references to the men at the front now, and those who are soon to go, but the climax of the evening came when Brother Maclean proposed the toast, “ The Men in Khaki.” This was greeted with a great cheer and we were all on our feet in an instant. Lieutenant Marlatt was asked to respond. He had no advance notice, made a cracking good speech— giving us the soldier’s point of view of the war and the sacrifices called for, and asking the support and backing of the Betas for the men in service as well as for those who will be in college in the fall, endeavoring to keep up the chapter standard. He also expressed the cordial feeling of the Canadians for the United States. When he concluded, the enthusiam was greater than ever, and when Hank Robertson, at the piano, crashed into the opening chords of “ Rule Britannia” everyone was up instanter, and how the Cana dians did sing i t ! They sang it with fire and spirit that would thrill anyone. The fact that Britain is at war, that Canada is at war and that Beta is at war is forced home to one over here, when one sits down to a banquet with five men, officers in the Second Contingent, two more who are officers in the Officers’ Training Corps at the University, and a whole chapter that is drilling almost daily. Afternoon work at the University has been suspended. Almost without exception the men in the chapter have turned in their names for active service at the close of the college year— another alumnus has gone abroad to take out a commission and there are nine more of Theta Zeta’s men in the trenches in northern France. Is it any wonder that the sixty men present at the banquet sang “ Rule Britannia” with tremendous spirit? They are making a great sacrifice and doing it with a spirit that makes one proud of Theta Zeta and proud to be a Beta. The delegates were called upon next for a few remarks, and each pledged the support of his chapter to the local chapter during the hard times that promise to come unless the war ends shortly. The sympathy expressed by the delegates for the Allied cause could hardly be interpreted as strict neutrality, but that is not to be wondered at under the circumstances. Then the banquet was over, and we from the States went home with im pressions that will never be forgotten. I wonder when there has been a ban quet just like this one? Perhaps in the stirring times of our Civil W ar; but I doubt if there has been anything within recent years approaching it in spirit and patriotism. I never attended a banquet like it— I am quite sure the

BETA LORE

delegates never did, and I doubt if we ever do again. It was not alone the patriotic spirit which thrilled one, but it was the application of the Beta spirit in a direction new to those of us from the States. W e admired it and were once more “ glad we are Betas.”

TH E BURIAL OF JOEL BATTLE J o h n C a lv i n L e w is ,

Miami

’60

I do not absolutely recall the time when I first met, at Miami, Joel Allan Battle of Lavergne, Tennessee. W e were classmates until the end of the junior year of the class of ’59. From injured eyesight I dropped out for a year. I visited Oxford at the graduation of the class of ’59 in which Battle bore a notable part. M y own graduation was a year later in June, i860, at which time I recall with pleasure his kindness over the de livery of my modest graduating address. Allan Battle was a man of mark in his years at Miami. O f good stand ing, but not first in class work, his great love for historical and political affairs gave him prominence and his ever ready eloquence made him a leader in the hall of debate. I recall, on one occasion, his fine argument for the side on which he was chosen, and then, as the oppo site side was weak, his volunteering an excellent argument for that side on points neglected by that side. He largely had the faculty in which Lincoln as a lawyer was so remarkable, of appreciat ing both sides of a question, of even stating his opponent’s position with fairness, and then overcoming that posi tion with stronger arguments. His mind was too broad and fair for partisanship only, but there were few keener partisans when sympathy was enlisted in a case. So with the social side of his student life at Oxford. His dislikes were not many, but, while not offensively shown, were un mistakable. He fairly clung to and endeared himself to his friends; His bearing was generally that of a frank and manly Southerner. In person he was slightly above medium height and quite erect. His features were fairly regular, his eyes exceptionally expressive. As I remember, his hair was nearly black and worn quite long, as was much the case at that time. To me he was the most interesting man I met at Miami, and often since I have thought of him in connection with my student life. I do not recall that, upon graduation, he took class honors, but that, far better, he took with him the expectation of Miami that in his future the class of ’59 would be honored.

BURIAL OF JOEL BATTLE

I I

I do not recall any interview with Allan Battle after my graduation in June, i860, until shortly after Lincoln’s election to the presidency. It was about December 1, i860, at the rooms of Mr. and Mrs. Battle in Cincinnati, where he was studying law. Our conversation was almost en tirely on the conditions and possibility of war, resulting from the increasing excitement in the southern tier of Southern States. It naturally appeared that, in case of war arising from the questions at issue, all the slave hold ing states would be in sympathy with the Southern side. Mr. Battle ap prehended that this sympathy would effect the action of Tennessee, and I well recall his bitter regret at the situation, and what it meant for himself. I believe that in pride of country he was far above the average citizen, but the call of kinfolk, early environment and of state, came with peculiar force to one of his temperament, and the conflict of these considerations made him very unhappy. A s I remember his statement before we parted, it was that if war broke out and his state should be involved, he could not fight against the flag, nor against the people of his birthplace, and would probably go abroad in the hopes that the struggle would be brief. In considering his character and the course he finally took, I have largely ex plained to myself the decision of many noble souls who like Robert E. Lee went into the Confederacy with sad hearts. Shortly after the above interview I came to Illinois, and never again saw Allan Battle alive. In February or March, 1862, I heard he was wounded in the Battle of Mill Springs, and at that time was adjutant of his father’s regiment, the Twentieth Tennessee Infantry. A fter that, nothing, till I knew of his death at Shiloh. A t Pittsburgh Landing, Tennessee (Shiloh battlefield), the Forty-first Illinois, in which I had enlisted in the early summer of 1861, was in the First Brigade of Hurlbut’s Fourth Division of the Arm y of the Tennessee, and which held the left reserve line in Sunday’s battle. A fter serving a while on the staff of that brigade, I became captain of a company in the above regiment April 5, 1862, the day before the first day of Shiloh. W e were in camp beside the rough woods roadway leading from Pittsburgh to Hamburg and nearly a mile from Pittsburg. Just across the narrow road was the camp of the Thirty-first Indiana, and opposite my tent was that of Clifford Ross, adjutant of the Thirty-first. Ross had been a Miami man from Terre Haute, Indiana, and well knew Allan Battle. Ross, in Sunday’s battle, had been wounded in the left temple by a fragment of shell, and this wound later affected his mind. I had, the same day, a contusion on my left shoulder, and we both were in camp, off duty, for some little time after the battle. It was, I believe, on Tuesday morning, April 8, that Ross called to me,

BETA LORE

asking that I come at once to his tent. In passing to his tent I noticed on the grass a body wrapped in a Confederate blanket, and on asking Ross if it was anyone he knew, he replied, “one of the boys.” He then said, It is Allan Battle’s body,” and, -unfolding the blanket, I recognized the face, thinner than of old, but placid as if asleep. ^Ve found two ball marks in the right breast, and apparently death had been merciful and instant. I heard from Ross that Surgeon Turney of Ohio, who knew Battle, in looking for men o f his regiment wounded in our advance April 7, 1862, recognized the body and sent it by a detail of his men back towards his camp. These men stopped to rest by Lieutenant Ross’ tent, and he asked them to uncover the face and he then told the bearers that we were old friends and wouid care for the body. The dreadful relics of a great battle were for miles all about us. On both sides some 9,000 dead to bury and 15,000 wounded to care for. We knew Miami men were in some of the commands, but not where, nor in what condition. W e however found, I think, two others. The burial o f Battle was near our camp, and in the shade of an oak tree. The means available were rough, but I could not have asked more for a brother’s than we did for his body. On the side of the nearest oak we flattened a space, and nailed to it a board, into the surface of which was burned his name and date. In arranging his clothing, I bared the left shoulder and found a healing wound, probably from Mill Springs, and its condition would have excused a less determined man from the battle in which his life was lost. I also took a lock of his hair and mailed it in a letter to President Hall, with request that he send part of it to Mrs. Battle. I believe no more brave and noble soul left its body on that bloody field. More than thirty years after Shiloh battle, the Congress purchased prac tically the entire battle field of more than two miles square, to be dedicated in memory of those who fell there. The Union dead had been gathered and buried in the National Cemetery at Pittsburg, where nearly 5,000 lie, and nearly all identified and with stones marking their graves. As our troops held the field, they gathered the Confederate dead and buried them in trenches. There could be no identification of individuals, and but little of organizations to which the head had belonged. The burial of Allan Battle was the rare, almost the only exception in which the body of a fallen Confederate soldier was recognized and cared for by old friends of Miami. On the thirty-third anniversary of Shiloh, April 6 and 7, 1895, several thousand old Union and Confederate soldiers gathered there, mainly to as certain and mark the locations o f the commands of the two armies, and were of mutual aid in this. While, with others of my old company and regiment, I was at our battle line, a stranger inquired for me by name and told me he had been in the Twentieth Tennessee at Shiloh, had heard I was at the burial of Allan Battle and wished to find the spot. With two of my old company who had been at the burial, we drove to the vicinity of our camp at the time of the battle, some three quarters of a mile in the rear of our line. W e found the wood road quite changed in location; much of the old timber had been wrecked by artillery fire* or cut down since the battle; then the soft wood had grown from little saplings in 1862 to trees in many cases over a foot in diameter; in fact, the old landmarks were

BURIAL OF JOEL BATTLE

gone, and we could not positively identify our old camp ground. A s to the burial place of Allan Battle we were uncertain, but agreed upon the vicinity. The oak trees had been cut down, with stumps so low that no indication of the score we had made could be found on any of them. W e finally told regimental comrades of Allan Battle that we could not desig nate the exact location of his grave. Concerning it, however, his friends have the consolation that his unmarked resting place is for all time preserved in that field consecrated to the memory of the brave who fell at Shiloh. ★ ★ ★ In a volume of verse dedicated to “ Old Miami” is a poem written by L. E. Grennon regarding this incident. A Miami Beta who sent it, John W . Harrigan, ’24, wrote, “ Joel Battle was a Beta at Miami in those stirring days before the Civil War. Although small of stature this fire eating Southerner Courtesy o f Sigm a C hi was one of the foremost leaders in the Erodelphian Hall, one of the two literary halls from which C A P T . J. C. L E W IS Beta Theta Pi, Phi Delta Theta, the local Deke chapter, and Sigma Chi owe the inspiration of their establishment. When war did break out, Battle was studying law in Cincinnati and fully intended to stay neutral. His father became colonel of the Twentieth Tennessee Infantry, and Joel accepted a commission as adjutant in the same regiment.” “ Ere war had raised her frigh tful form Like prairie fire fanned by the storm, O r cannon’s roar filled all the land, Miami’s sons form ed friendly band. Chamberlain, Lewis, Clinton Ross, Found friendship gain for all their loss. “Am ong those spirits, light and free, Came one young man from Tennessee: H is strong, good points I fain would tell, N o wonder that all loved him w ell; Light, graceful form ; dark, piercing eyes, O f pleasing voice, of medium size; Though but a stripling when at school, H e looked like soldier born to rule. “ O ur college work was ended, W e left M iami’s halls; Blest be the memory of those friends W e met within her walls. “ The storm of war had broken, D ark clouds veiled all thg land; Friend against friend had chosen To wield death-dealing brand. “ In the stubborn fight at Shiloh, The South had odds to sp are; H er troops were in perfect order, Ours scattered everywhere.

beta

lore

But W estern men with hand and brain A re not disposed to yield, And bravely must the foemen fight W ho drives them from the field. W hen Johnston charged on Hulbert’s lines, The cypress clashed against the pines; Three times before a charge was made B y Confederate Tennessee brigade; N ow Albert Sidney Johnston comes, Mid cannon’s roar, ’mid roll o f drums; Advancing now, anon fall back, Hulbert recedes from fierce attack; There, fighting bravely, fighting well, Great Albert Sidney Johnston fell; And there, amid death-dealing rattle, Fell Southern Knight, Young Joel Battle. “ That evening when the dews were damp, John Lewis sought me at our camp; H e spoke with voice refined by sorrow O f duty to be done to-morrow, And, in his quiet way, he said, ‘I think we found Joe Battle dead.’ Although our ranks by death were serried, T he friend and class mate must be buried, For in that group that loved him so N o man would dare to call him foe. Three adjutants from different states M et ’round that lowly bed; . T w o from the North were living, One from the South lay dead. There amid the gathering shadows M et we three Miami boys— Clinton Ross, of Indiana; John C. Lewis, Illin ois; John R. Chamberlain, o f O h io ; College friends and mates were we, Met to bury Joel Battle, A djutant Twentieth Tennessee. “ None who knew would fail to know him. W ith a smile upon his face, Finger pointed, lips half parted H is was symmetry and grace. N ever thought we in that presence H is opinions we must slig h t; He, like one who did his duty, Died believing he was right. There he lay in princely beauty, His white brow in death was dam p; Loved by foeman like a brother, Buried from a Northern camp. There amid the somber shadows, On that dark ensanguined plain, Buried deep by loving foemen, T ill God’s trump sound not in vain, Sleeps the warm-hearted Battle T ill the K ing returns to reign.”

★ ★ ★

BURIAL OF JOEL BATTLE

In Joseph C. Nate: History of the Sigma Chi Fraternity, volume 2, page 19, another version of the story is given, based upon an interview with Captain Lewis. It is illustrated by a picture of Allan Battle. “ A Miami incident, and a soldier death early in the war may serve to illustrate how the fraternal ties in the colleges were torn by the course of events. The story is that of the finding of the body of Joel Allan Battle, Miami ’59, on Shiloh field by John C. Lewis and Clifford W . Ross, both of the Miami class of i860, and its burial by them, aided by John R. Chamberlain, Miami ’58. In college, Battle was a member of the Erodelphian Society and a Beta Theta Pi. It will be remembered that John C. Lewis was an initiate of the old Alpha of Sigma Chi at Miami, who had worked faithfully with the chapter until its dissolution in June, 1858. Thereafter, in the fall of 1859, with the larger freedom of the times in such matters, he had joined the local chapter of Beta Theta Pi. Both Lewis and Ross had been roommates with young Battle at Miami, and Chamberlain was a close friend of the three. “ Joe” Battle, as he was known in college, was of an old and influential southern family, having his home at Lavergne, Tennessee. He was a handsome keen-eyed, daring fellow ad mired in the literary societies for his eloquence and literary expression and on the campus for his fine courtesy and high spirit. It had been largely through the influence of Battle that John C. Lewis had placed his allegiance with Beta Theta Pi. When the war opened, Battle was studying law in Cincinnati. Return ing to his home, he enlisted in the Twentieth Tennessee Confederate In fantry, his father being colonel of the regiment. He fell among the many slain in front of the historic “ Hornet’s Nest,” at Shiloh on Sunday, April 6, 1862. It was in this part of the field of battle that General Albert Sidney Johnston of the Confederate Arm y was killed. The Twentieth Tennessee had held its ground when all other regiments of its brigade had retreated. It was the following day that Lewis and Ross the former somewhat seriously wounded, discovered the body of their old college mate. Even in death there remained a smile on the face of the young soldier from Miami; the hand and arm were raised, as though the forefinger were pointing to some object ahead; the lips looked as if they were speaking when he fell. Lewis and Ross carried the gray-clad form within their camp. The next day, Chamberlain, who was known to be in a neighboring Union camp was summoned. Then the strange spectacle might have been observed of these heart-broken lads of Old Miami burying as best they could the body of their college friend, but enemy in war, dear “Joe” Battle. A coffin was rudely constructed of cracker boxes and fence boards. The grave was dug as deep as conditions permitted. Carefully the earth was leveled down about it, so that the place might not be noticed or disturbed. A deep notch was cut in a large black-oak tree which stood near, by which to find the body should its removal become possible. The remains of this lad of Tennessee and Old Miami, however, have ever rested where he I fell— on Shiloh field.”

BETA LORE

W H AT THE BATTERY LOG SHOWED A Beta who desired to remain unnamed was responsible for the follow ing account of an interesting camp experience: In 1918, I applied for admission to the Field Artillery Central Officers’ Training Camp at Louisville, Kentucky, and happened to be a member of one of the first batteries recruited from the ranks of business and profes sional men between the ages of 31 and 40. In our battery were men from all walks of life— several well-known lawyers, business executives, legislators, and six whose wealth went into seven figures. Most of them were college graduates. It was quite a battery. In our spare moments— which were few— we carried on a few activities not associated directly with the business at hand but designed to keep up our drooping spirits while we tried to master the theory of the probable error, how to compute the dead space area, how to handle a revolver without inflicting great bodily harm upon one another, how to manicure a mule, how to stick on a horse when the horse was of a different mind, how to get into a gas mask, and a few thousand other hows— which we never fully mastered. W e organized a band and a glee club. W e had weekly entertainments. W e had athletic teams. I knew that there were several Betas in the battery. How many or who they were I didn’t know because we didn’t have much time to “ dis cover” one another and we were not concerned in differentiating between men upon that basis. W e were all members of a big fraternity just then. But I did often wonder whether or not certain men who were leaders in everything were, by any chance, Betas. Later on, toward the close of the “terrible” twelve weeks, we decided to get out a “ Battery Log.” It fell to my lot to get the thing started— pos sibly because I had had newspaper training— more likely because the officers regarded me as not exactly a howling success as an artilleryman. Well, any way, when we got the thing ready for the press, in going through the list of names which had been arranged alphabetically, with little personal glimpses regarding each man, I made the following discovery: Out of 150 men, there were more than twenty Betas. It was more in teresting to note that the ring-leaders in every activity, battery and social, were Betas. A Beta was the honor man; a Beta was the band leader; a Beta was the leader of the Glee Club; the battery quartet were all Betas; the Battery Log was gotten out largely by Betas; every Beta got a com mission.

FINDING A “LO ST” BROTHER The Alpha Iota chapter list long included a “ lost brother. How he was found was told in the chapter paper. The story had value to others because it suggested methods. There may be some instances where mystery will al ways surround the “ lost;” but, in most cases, earnest search and inquiry will bring success. Apart from his re-discovery Caleb Stone’s story has human interest. . . Caleb Stone was one of the Washington University pioneers in Beta Theta Pi, having been initiated in the chapter’s first year, between the first of April, 1869, and the close of the college year, but in all of the later

FINDING A LOST BROTHER

catalogues of the fraternity he has been marked as “ Lost,” letters forwarded to his last known address having been returned marked “ Not Found.” The chapter historian had been looking for him for twenty years and had about given up hope of finding him, when a reference to the catalogue of the University for the year 1868-1869 showed on the roster of students the names Francis, David Rowland, 1870 A. B., Stanford, Kentucky. Shackelford, Joel Walker, Special, Richmond, Kentucky. Stone, Caleb, Special, Richmond, Kentucky. Stanford is just a little way from Richmond, and a visit to Governor Francis confirmed the guess that he was a friend and neighbor of the other two before he came to St. Louis. O f course, he had been the man who brought Stone into Alpha Iota chapter. While he did not know where his old chaptermate was living, a letter to a niece in Richmond gave us the address as Green ville, Mississippi, and from Greenville, Mississippi, Brother Stone has sent us this letter: “ I received your appreciated letter some time ago and should have an swered it before this. I was not only deI lighted to hear from a member of our college society, but appreciate the zeal and interest you have taken in tracing me up. I was born and raised in Rich mond, Kentucky. A s boys, D. R. Fran cis and Joel W . Shackelford were class mates of mine in our home town. Dave left to live with G. P. Rowland in your city and entered Washington Universi ty. In 1867 I was attending college at Lexington, Kentucky. During vacation D A V ID R. F R A N C IS , my brother, who was then living South Washington ’70 returned home by way of St. Louis. He called to see a young friend of his who was going to St. Louis University. He became so favorably impressed with that college he persuaded me to go there. Being an orphan, I was allowed to choose my own college. I persuaded Joe Shackelford, who was also an or phan, to go with me. When we reached St. Louis, we put up at the Southern Hotel. In a day or two we called on Father O ’Neal, head of the university, and told him we were going to attend his college. He seemed delighted and told us to have our trunks sent up to the college at once. But we had no thought of boarding in the college and so informed him. He said it was against their rules for boys from a distance to board out of college and in a rather commanding way ordered us to have our trunks sent up. W e left undecided where we would go. The fair was going on at that time and we put in a week having a good time. Finally we decided to pack our trunks and leave the next morning for Washington and Lee University, Virginia.

BETA LORE

W H AT THE BATTERY LOG SHOWED A Beta who desired to remain unnamed was responsible for the follow ing account of an interesting camp experience: In 1918, I applied for admission to the Field Artillery Central Officers’ Training Camp at Louisville, Kentucky, and happened to be a member of one of the first batteries recruited from the ranks of business and profes sional men between the ages of 31 and 40. In our battery were men from all walks of life— several well-known lawyers, business executives, legislators, and six whose wealth went into seven figures. Most of them were college graduates. It was quite a battery. In our spare moments— which were few— we carried on a few activities not associated directly with the business at hand but designed to keep up our drooping spirits while we tried to master the theory of the probable error, how to compute the dead space area, how to handle a revolver without inflicting great bodily harm upon one another, how to manicure a mule, how to stick on a horse when the horse was of a different mind, how to get into a gas mask, and a few thousand other hows— which we never fully mastered. W e organized a band and a glee club. W e had weekly entertainments. W e had athletic teams. I knew that there were several Betas in the battery. How many or who they were I didn’t know because we didn’t have much time to “ dis cover” one another and we were not concerned in differentiating between men upon that basis. W e were all members of a big fraternity just then. But I did often wonder whether or not certain men who were leaders in everything were, by any chance, Betas. Later on, toward the close of the “ terrible” twelve weeks, we decided to get out a “ Battery Log.” It fell to my lot to get the thing started— pos sibly because I had had newspaper training— more likely because the officers regarded me as not exactly a howling success as an artilleryman. Well, any way, when we got the thing ready for the press, in going through the list of names which had been arranged alphabetically, with little personal glimpses regarding each man, I made the following discovery: Out of 150 men, there were more than twenty Betas. It was more in teresting to note that the ring-leaders in every activity, battery and social, were Betas. A Beta was the honor man; a Beta was the band leader; a Beta was the leader of the Glee Club; the battery quartet were all Betas; the Battery Log was gotten out largely by Betas; every Beta got a com mission.

FINDING A LOST BROTHER

catalogues of the fraternity he has been marked as “ Lost,” letters forwarded to his last known address having been returned marked “ Not Found.” The chapter historian had been looking for him for twenty years and had about given up hope of finding him, when a reference to the catalogue of the University for the year 1868-1869 showed on the roster of students the names Francis, David Rowland, 1870 A. B., Stanford, Kentucky. Shackelford, Joel Walker, Special, Richmond, Kentucky. Stone, Caleb, Special, Richmond, Kentucky. Stanford is just a little way from Richmond, and a visit to Governor Francis confirmed the guess that he was a friend and neighbor of the other two before he came to St. Louis. O f course, he had been the man who brought Stone into Alpha Iota chapter. While he did not know where his old chaptermate was living, a letter to a niece in Richmond gave us the address as Green ville, Mississippi, and from Greenville, Mississippi, Brother Stone has sent us this letter: “ I received your appreciated letter some time ago and should have an swered it before this. I was not only de lighted to hear from a member of our college society, but appreciate the zeal and interest you have taken in tracing me up. I was born and raised in Rich mond, Kentucky. A s boys, D. R. Fran cis and Joel W . Shackelford were class mates of mine in our home town. Dave left to live with G. P. Rowland in your city and entered Washington Universi ty. In 1867 I was attending college at Lexington, Kentucky. During vacation D A V ID R. F R A N C IS , my brother, who was then living South Washington ’70 returned home by way of St. Louis. He called to see a young friend of his who was going to St. Louis University. He became so favorably impressed with that college he persuaded me to go there. Being an orphan, I was allowed to choose my own college. I persuaded Joe Shackelford, who was also an or phan, to go with me. When we reached St. Louis, we put up at the Southern Hotel. In a day or two we called on Father O ’Neal, head of the university, and told him we were going to attend his college. He seemed delighted and told us to have our trunks sent up to the college at once. But we had no thought of boarding in the college and so informed him. He said it was against their rules for boys from a distance to board out of college and in a rather commanding way ordered us to have our trunks sent up. W e left undecided where we would go. The fair was going on at that time and we put in a week having a good time. Finally we decided to pack our trunks and leave the next morning for Washington and Lee University, Virginia.

BETA LORE

A fter packing our trunks we went for a stroll up Fourth Street. Opposite the Court House we ran into D. R. Francis. He was very much surprised to meet us and asked why we were not at school. W e told him the cause and of our decision to leave for Virginia the next morning. He persuaded us to remain and enter Washington University. W e employed Chancellor Chauvenet to instruct us about two weeks until we caught up with our classes. I am glad to hear that Vernon Knapp is still in the land of the living. He and I were great friends and he is a fine man. While not very successful in a business way during my younger years, I still have lots to be thankful for. I was not successful in the planting business and had to sacrifice my plantation. Never having married, I am alone, and as I have rounded out my three score and ten and will soon be seventy-five years of age, this world holds out very little hope of my gaining a strong foothold in it in the future. However, I am thankful to report that I am still strong and vigorous and able to make a livelihood.”

TH E FRESHMAN WHO IS DIFFERENT When A . J. Priest, Idaho ’ 18, was a District Chief he sent out to his chapters from time to time unusually helpful and thought-provoking letters. They were so full of good suggestions as to make them a distinct contribution to the administrative literature of Beta Theta Pi. One written on January 23, 1925, from his headquarters in Boise, Idaho, touched upon a most im portant consideration in fraternity life: D e a r B r o t h e r s : Some weeks ago there was published in London the story of a British investigator’s study of American universities and colleges. Here is his startling comment on our fraternity system: In the first place, you have the fraternity. A fraternity is a place where a number of young men invite other young men to join them on condition that they, too, become like themselves. The re sulting intellectual stagnation is called a fraternity; and in these places there is no room at all for a man who is in any way different from his fellows. Any knobs on his character are quickly knocked o ff.

Basing my opinion on a very modest opportunity for observation, I think the gentleman is wrong. I don’t believe, for example, that the chapters of Beta Theta Pi at Whitman, Washington State, Utah and Idaho are quag mires of intellectual stagnation and I cannot think that our membership has become so standardized that we have no room for the man who is inclined to be different; but I am quite sure that this Britisher has indicated two possible sources of danger. I f you have any regard for the fraternity’s future, be careful how you handle your freshman, both before and after initiation. Don’t be too anxious to “ knock off the knobs.” Encourage the youngster who is inclined to origi nality and be painstaking in your treatment of the sensitive, unusual boy whose viewpoints may not coincide with those of the average undergraduate. Chapter officers must not forget that the development of personality is just as important as the moulding of character. Who knows? The man who sits at your right hand as this letter is being read may one day so develop his now latent powers that he will win enduring fame.

W HERE BUNDY HELD TH E PARIS ROAD

Personality: Consider the Borahs and the Lowdens, the John M. Har lans and the Willis Van Devanters, the Shepardsons and the Sissons. I can’t make myself believe that fraternity contacts stifled the aspirations or curbed the ambitions of these great Betas. To the contrary, I ’m sure that Beta Theta Pi proved to them a source of powerful inspiration. But un sympathetic upperclassmen might have exerted a blasting influence even upon such lives as these. Have patience, then, with that freshman who is different. He may be destined to bring high honor to your chapter and all Beta Theta P i. (A . J. P r i e s t , District Chief)

O L D A S B U R Y B O Y S O F 1881 Standing: Omar Bundy, John K . Urm ston; seated: W illis Van Devanter, George W . Switzer.

W HERE BUNDY HELD TH E PARIS ROAD On Monday, July 15, 1918, Major-General Omar Bundy, De Pauw ’81, was in command of the American forces on the Marne which had been forced back by the Germans toward Conde-En-Brie. The French com mander informed General Bundy that this German success would have no special effect upon the outcome of the battle; that it was well understood

BETA LORE

that the Americans had retired slowly, and that no counter-attack by them was expected; and advised an hour’s rest for the American troops. General Bundy’s reply w a s : “W e regret being unable on this occasion to follow the counsel of our masters, the French, but the American flag has been forced to retire. This is unendurable and none of our soldiers would understand their not being asked to do whatever is necessary to re-establish a situation which is humiliat ing to us and unacceptable to our country’s honor. W e are going to counter attack.” Immediately after this message was sent to headquarters the Americans launched their counter-attack, recovered the lost ground and took an ad ditional half mile from the Germans. This boldness at that particular period in the great battle, the Associated Press reported, was decisive. The tide was turned. Paris was saved. The war was won. Bundy’s message will long be remembered. Willis O. Robb, Ohio Wesleyan ’79, was much stirred by this incident. He w rote: Where Bundy held the Paris Road, The morning battle flamed and flowed. “ The Marne is passed; the line is bent! Heaven speed our succor, heaven-sent!” And Europe gazed with eyes that glowed Where Bundy held the Paris Road. The patient Frenchman counseled, “ Wait, The Hun but hurries to his fate, It was but now the battle broke— Tomorrow— and the counterstroke!” But pale the star of patience showed, Where Bundy held the Paris Road. Said Bundy to the High Command: “ None of our men would understand! The Stars and Stripes are driven back? Impossible! W e shall attack!” And forward line on line they strode, Where Bundy held the Paris Road. And when night brought the long day’s end, The dead that filled the river-bend W ere German dead. And Europe knew ! And Freedom all her bugles blew. And once more French the river flowed W here Bundy held the Paris R oad !

F LYIN G ACROSS TH E PACIFIC

FLYING ACROSS TH E PACIFIC In the early days of June, 1928, the world ^yas thrilled by the suc cessful flight of an airplane from Oakland, California, to Sidney, Australia, via Honolulu. For members of Beta Theta Pi the epoch-marking per formance was shared by a member of the fraternity, Harry W . Lyon, Dartmouth, ’08. While in the air between California and Hawaii he sent a message to Governor Wallace Rider Farrington, Maine ’91, which was

P hoto

by the H onolulu

“ S ta r-B u lletin ,"

L Y O N A N D H IS L E IS L eft to rig h t: The crew of the Southern Cross, tired, but happy, aftei their long flight from Oakland Airport to W heeler Field, Oahu. L eft to rig h t: Chief radio man, W a rn e r; Captain Charles Kingsford-Sm ith, p ilo t; H arry W . Lyon, Dartmouth ’08, navigator; Captain C. T . P. Ulm, organizer and co-pilot and co-navigator of the Southern Cross flight.

picked up by radio operators the world around and was given wide pub licity in the American press. It said : “ A brother Beta is coming to see you on the Southern Cross. Lyon.” Lieutenant Lyon who was the navigator was greeted warmly by the Honolulu Betas, but he was kept so busy during his short stay on the island that it was not possible to arrange a luncheon or a dinner. The two pictures illustrating this unique event in Beta history were furnished by Riley Harris Allen, of the University of Washington and Chicago chapters, editor of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. A t the moment when the picture showing Governor Farrington greeting the aviators was taken, Lyon and a friend were talking together out of range of the camera. In the other pic ture the Governor is not shown. The two together show both the Beta I

b e ta lo r e

participants in the jubilation. Subsequently the flight was continued until in due time, the Australian objective was reached.

P hoto

by the H onolulu “ Star-Bulletin/*

A H O N O LU LU W ELCO M E Governor W allace R. Farrington, Maine ’91, welcomes the Southern Cross Fliers at W heeler Field, Oahu, just after they had landed after a flight of 2406 miles from Oakland Airport, Oakland, California. L eft to right: Governor Farrington; chief radio man, James W arner; M artin Jensen, second place winner in the Dole air-derby of 1927 and a resident of Oahu; Captain Charles ‘Kingsford-Sm ith, pilot of the South ern Cross; Captain C. T . P. Ulm, organizer and co-navigator of the Southern Cross, and A rt Goebel, winner and pilot in the Dole Pacific air-derby o f 1927, temporarily visiting Oahu.

TH E TIES OF FRATERN ITY Grove D. Curtis, Kenyon ’80, contributes an intesting story illustrating how the ties of fraternity are intertwined. It was called out by an article published in the fraternity magazine. “ When reading the last issue of the magazine, I was agreeably sur prised at coming on the article, ‘Fraternity Relationship/ and particularly at the reference to Brother George E. Taylor and myself. Any allusion to Brother Taylor always excites in my mind many pleasant memories, for our friendship dating from our respective ‘discovery,’ steadily grew with the years until his death in 1911. Brother Taylor was a member of one of the oldest families in Virginia, and in the cemetery at Norfolk, I was shown the graves of his ancestors and kindred dating far back into the eighteenth century. “ He possessed in full degree those delightful traits of character which are supposed to pertain, and which I believe do pertain, to the cultured, well-bred Southern gentleman; and I have always counted myself for

TH E TIES OF FR A TE R N ITY

tunate in having known him, and having enjoyed his friendship. In this business, matter-of-fact age, it would seem hardly credible that I should have gone to Norfolk at his request for no other purpose than to have our picture taken; and yet, neither of us was conscious of anything childish or silly in the transaction. “ It was through Baird, the Nestor of our fraternity, that the incident of our peculiar relationship and its odd discovery got into the magazine, and acquired the publicity of which today I am very proud. As Baird told it, the story ran: “ On one occasion Grove D. Curtis, Kenyon ’8o, charter member of Beta Alpha chapter, a coal merchant of New York City, was in Norfolk, Virginia, on a business trip. His acquaintance there was limited, and needing some local information, he turned into the office of George W . Taylor, also a coal dealer, to make some inquiries. The result of this chance incident was a strong friendship: for the two coal merchants discovered that they were born on the same day, November, 30, 1853, and that both were Betas, T ay lor being a V.M . I. man of ’72, so they had their picture taken together and wrote upon it these legends: “ George W . Taylor, born November 30, 1853, Beta Theta Pi, Alpha Theta chapter, Virginia Military Institute, Coal Merchant, Norfolk, V ir ginia.” “ Grove D. Curtis, born November 30, 1853, Beta Theta Pi, Kenyon Col lege, Coal Merchant, New Y ork City.” The incident was so exciting that they burst into song, tied picture and poem together with pink and blue ribbon, and had a real Beta human in terest document. The poem, of joint composition, related: ‘It came about— ’twas very queer, W e started life the selfsame year; And queerer, stranger yet to say, The selfsame month, the selfsame day. And when in classic shades we sought T o gain the lore by labor bought, No sooner had we honors won Than W ooglin made us each his son. W hen now our college days were passed And we upon the world were cast, Fate still, to make the balance true, Gave both the selfsame work to do. And now we ask with proud disdain, W here are the two can match us twain? H o ! East, or W est, or South, or North, I f there are such, let them stand fo rth ! W e shy our hats into the r in g ! W e dare the W orld our equals b rin g ! It can’t be done— our record w in s! W e are the only Beta twins.’

“ And now I must tell you another story, a story which may be con sidered a sequel of the Taylor-Curtis episode. “ When I was a boy I attended an institute in Ohio, whose students, boys and girls, became very well acquainted, as boys and girls do in such institutions.

BETA LORE

When our school days were over, we separated, in most cases, for ever. But as the years passed away and the girls married, one of them, ‘unbeknownst,’ to me, named her first boy ‘Grove’— Grove P. Dean. And when in the course of time, this boy became old enough to enter college, he became a student of the Western Reserve University, class of 1908, and was promptly designated as worthy to wear the badge and bear the name of Beta Theta Pi. And now we are approching the finale. He sub scribed for the magazine, as all good Betas should, and evidently his mother was in the habit of reading it, as all good Beta mothers do, when their boys live at home and the magazine comes to the house, as was the case in this instance. Anyway, when the November, 1907, number was brought home, and the mother came upon the picture of the ‘Beta Twins/ she became very much excited, and exclaimed to her son, ‘W hy that’s Grove Curtis, whom you were named for.’ The boy then wrote me, and the new relationship was disclosed. “ I have written the foregoing, not so much because it may interest you, as because it pleases me to recall in a reminiscent way a most pleasant chapter of my Beta experiences, a chapter of unmixed pleasure without flaw or alloy of any kind.” Here endeth the Curtis narrative; but it is worthy of note that the pic ture of Curtis and Taylor was matched in the magazine for April, 1916, by one showing: Albert Raymond Betts, Jr., Cincinnati ’ 12; Ralph Augustus Kreimer, Cincinnati ’ 10; M ax Brewster Robinson, Cincinnati ’ 12. A n accompanying note stated that each was born on December 21, 1888. Another case was reported from the University of Washington chapter whose secretary claimed these were better twins than Curtis and Taylor, but he gave no names for history writing, as he wrote: “ While making up the admission notices of Beta Omega’s freshmen for this year, I happened to note that two of the freshmen were born on the same day of the same year in the same place. They entered the same uni versity on the same day and were initiated into Beta Theta Pi at the same time.” A famous pair of half a century ago were William Fletcher Boyd, Ohio ’66, and George Washington Boyce, Ohio ’67. Their acquaintance be gan as lads of tender age living on adjoining farms. Together they at tended day school, college, and law school. They then became law partners. In a double wedding they married sisters named Wood, and organized a family of four which lived together until death broke up the home. They had a common purse with no accounting ever asked. “ Boyd & Boyce” were steady advertisers in the Beta Lawyers section of the Beta Theta Pi. Boyd was a director of the fraternity from 1879 to 1895, and Boyce was a strong backer of the Cincinnati alumni chapter. ★ ★ ★ “ The years may go, but our hearts still know That such friendships can never die; F or the love w e bear is the love we share In old Beta Theta Pi.” — K e n n e t h R ogers

R I L E Y ’S F IR S T PO E M

R ILE Y’S FIRST PO EM : TO A BETA Hamilton Jennings Dunbar, De Pauw ’66 (then Indiana Asbury Univer! sity), died in Greenfield, Indiana, September 5, 1876. James Whitcomb [ Riley was then twenty-three years old, a sign painter and handy boy about the town in which he was born and brought up. Riley idolized Dunbar, as | did all the town’s folk in the Greenfield of that day.

Henry Augustus Buchtel, De Pauw ’72, the Methodist Episcopal pastor ' at Knightstown (Indiana), an alumnus of Dunbar’s college, Asbury Univer sity, was asked to conduct the funeral service at the Dunbar home. Riley sat right against Buchtel as he stood at the head of the coffin to preach |• on immortality and to pray and to speak the eulogy on the life and character j of the idol of Greenfield. Riley said to Buchtel, twenty years a fte r: “ When the service was over I went home and wrote a poem on Ham Dunbar, and sent it to the Indianapolis Journal, and the literary people said, A poet has arrived.’ And that was the first poem I ever wrote, that gave me the idea that I could be something else than a sign painter. So I always associate you with the first poem I ever wrote.’ ” That poem has never been published in any of Riley’s books because it is so personal. Following is an accurate copy made by Henry A . Buchtel for the students in the Summer Quarter o f the University of Denver in 191 1 . H A M IL T O N J. D U N B A R Died September 5, 1876

I D ead ! D e a d ! Dead ! W e thought him ours alone; And none so proud to see him tread The rounds o f fame, and lift his head W here sunlight ever shone; But now our aching eyes are dim, And look through tears in vain fo r h im ! II Name! Nam e! Nam e! It was his diadem ; N or ever tarnish, taint of shame, Could dim its lu ster; like a flame Reflected in a gem, H e wears it blazing on his brow W ithin the courts o f heaven n o w ! III T ears! T ears! T ears! L ike dews upon the leaf That burst at last, from out the years, T he blossom of a trust appears T hat blooms above the g r ie f ; A nd mother, brother, w ife, and child W ill see it and be reconciled.

J. W . R.

BETA LORE

AN INITIATION A T W AVELAND K

arl

is c h e r ,

Indiana

’25

The records of Tau chapter at Wabash College contain an entry which always attracts the attention of the reader. It seems rather strange that the Crawfordsville institution, which has prided itself always on being a man’s college, with none of the “ co-eds” to distract, should be the place where three young women appear to have been regularly initiated into the Beta Theta Pi in days gone by. The word regularly is used advisedly because, previous to the adoption of the Constitution of 1879* there was nothing to prevent the admission into a chapter of those who were not students and nothing to bar the initiation of women. But here is what the chapter record book says: “ Hall of the Charlotte Elizabeth Society Waveland Collegiate Institute June 15, 1861. “According to previous arrangement as many of the Greeks as could make it convenient assembled at W aveland today for the double purpose o f attending the commencement services and also of perform ing the ceremony of initiation of our worthy and beloved sisters Miss Emma Bennett and Miss Celia Crocker. Through the influence of the sisters the use o f the Charlotte Elizabeth Society Hall was obtained and the following members of T au were present: Cleland, Dodds, Fair child, Fullenwider, Harrison, Rhoads, Spencer, and Sullivan. The sisters were then duly initiated and jo y fu lly welcomed into a full communion of our mystic order and now they are entitled to a brother’s love and a brother’s protection from every heart in Beta Theta P i.”

This record so interested me that I made an investigation and gained from it the facts for the following story: One of the early educators of Indiana was a Mrs. Bethania Bennett, a widow, who with a large family of daughters moved from place to place in Indiana starting seminaries for young ladies. She visited several southern Indiana towns and during a stay at Hanover she became acquainted with the members of the Iota chapter of Beta Theta Pi. She was deeply im pressed by these young men; they found the other members of her family interesting and so it is natural that she should become acquainted with the personnel of the Hanover chapter. These frequent movings brought Mrs. Bennett and her family to Greencastle, and from there to Waveland, Indiana, of which the 18 5 0 Indiana Gaz etteer says: “ a pleasant village in the southwest corner of Montgomery County, fourteen miles from Crawfordsville, population 2 0 0 .” In 18 5 6 Mrs. Bennett became the superintendent of the “ female department” of the W ave land Collegiate Institute which had been founded in 1 8 4 7 under act of the Presbyterian General Assembly of Indiana. The building of the In stitute had been completed in 1 8 4 9 anc^ the name was first given as the Waveland Academy, but in 1 8 5 9 with the development of a scientific course its name was changed. A t that time Tau chapter was existing in a sub rosa state at Wabash and consequently met in secret. The attraction of Mrs. Bennett’s daughters, especially Emma and her half sister, Celia, proved alluring to the Wabash Betas, and they were even more enthusiastic over the family when they learned that Mrs. Bennett had been, a confidant of the Hanover Betas. Mrs. Bennett often turned her home over to the boys from Crawfordsville for

TH E HOUSE ON TH E HILL

their meetings and Miss Emma and Miss Celia embroidered Beta badges upon silk scarves for each o f the members which were worn during meet ings in place of the badge. It was largely in recognition of this close friendship that Emma and Celia were initiated in 1861. A few years ago an inquiry was made of John Edward Cleland,^abash ’62, then living in Indianapolis as the only surviving member of Tau chapter who was present at the Waveland ceremony. He was asked whether the initiation was a regular one, then used by Beta Theta Pi, or I whether it was a specially prepared form for a “ sister’s initiation” such as used to be in vogue at Centre College, Westminster College and one or two other Beta chapter sites. His answer left no doubt that the young ladies were admitted into full membership in our fraternity. A daughter of John E. Cleland married John Allan Blair, Wabash ’93, District Chief, Trustee and Vice-president of the fraternity. The latter was the son of Jennie Blair, who died in Crawfordsville, Indiana, M ay 8, 1926, at the advanced age of ninety-three years. In 1867 she was initiated by Tau chapter in appreciation of her consistent friendship to Wabash Betas and for keeping the ritual and chapter records during the Civil War. Miss Celia Crocker married Dr. George L. Simmons and moved to Cali fornia where she made her home in Sacramento until her death a few years ago. Miss Emma Bennett married Jerome Allen of Greencastle. For many years he was cashier of the First National Bank in that college town. Mrs. Allen’s friendship with the members of Delta chapter was a continuation of that of her mother and herself in earlier years with the boys of Iota at Hanover and of Tau at Crawfordsville. The family tie to the fraternity was still further strengthened when her three sons became Betas at De Pauw, Charles Bennett Allen, ’97, Joseph Percival Allen, ’97, and Fred Jerome Allen, ’oo. A s her son-in-law, Clarence Arthur Royse, De Pauw ’92, is also a Beta and his son, Allen Royse, ’28, is an active member of the Amherst Chapter, the Waveland initiation of 1861 seems to have been a sort of epochmaking event in Beta Theta Pi.

THE HOUSE ON THE HILL A t the formal dedication of Curtis Hall, the chapter house of Alpha Eta in June, 1927, Osman C. Hooper, Denison ’79, author of the following poem, read it as part of the program: O Hills of old Licking, that gracefully rise And reach, as in love, for the kiss of the skies, W e joyously sing of your vistas so fair, The town you embrace and the college you bear! O f Granville, the peaceful and friendly, our praise For loveliness grows with the lengthening days And Denison, Mother, who guided our feet, Receives our affection, abiding, complete.

BETA LORE

T H E D E N IS O N C H A P T E R H O U S E T he approach from “Fraternity Row,” with walk leading to the main entrance. Note the dragon on the chimney and the three stars in the gable, which are lighted “on occasions o f festivity and rejoicing.”

But dearest of all is that sanctified spot Where Betas may gather, and others may not, W here fellowship flows with its balm for distress, W ith urge to endeavor and praise for success. Our House is a glorious rose in full bloom; The long-ago bud was an everyday room— A room that still held to our marveling sight The shrine of our vows with its mystical light. Since friendship began, of true manhood the test, Our Beta ideals are brotherhood’s best ; Years whiten the hair and enfeeble the frame, But the shine of the stars is forever the same. O f friendship enduring, these walls and this roof, This cheer, and this beauty, and comfort are proof. For out of the distance, as with one will, Came hands to build for us our House on the Hill. Within is the free-hearted friendship of youth, Around us a loyalty stable as truth; And, far though we roam, it will summon us still—This House Love has builded for us on the Hill.

“ TH ERE’S A SCENE”

“THERE’S A SCENE” The passing of Dr. Joseph Osgood Stilson, Hanover ’yi, recalls a faded broadside, o f which only a few copies— -perhaps two or three— remain. Whether printed by teasing chapter mates or by “ Barbarians” is not cer tainly known. The introduction contains a reference to a popular children’s song of the period whose closing line was “ Come put me in my little bed.” Fate appears to have been more generous than the critics; for the song, somewhat changed, seems destined to remain one of the favorites of Beta Theta Pi. The broadside follow s: O D E T O B E T A T H E T A PI (Tune: “ Tramp! Tram p!” ) For fear that the pearls of poesy contained in the following may be lost and the world lose the poetic scintillations of this young gifted and amateur word artist who in the dim vista of the future is destined to have his name written high upon the scroll of fame among those of Shelley, Dryden, Pope, Moore, Longfellow, and Byron, we have snatched this pearl from its obscurity and send it forth as a bright messenger to gladden the world and make the author as happy as a big sunflower. The aspirations of some lives fade silently away, but we design putting this author “ in his little bed,” where he can rest in calm security upon his honors already w on : T here’s a place where brothers greet W here true kindred hearts do meet, A t an altar sending love’s sweet incense high, W here is found without alloy, Purest stores o f social joy, ’T is within the hall o f Beta Theta Pi. Friendship gave our order birth Pure and lasting as the earth Strong devotion to our motto gives us life. W ith the help of Brothers dear, And o f God we’ve naught to fea r A s we mingle in the din of earthly strife. Man’s a creature frail as dust, I f on self alone he trust; Strength is ever found in unity’s firm tie, Faith and hope together stand N ear Charity, with open hand ; Such are ever worthy Beta Theta Pi. “ Beta G irls” there always are, Pure and lovely, passing fair, W ho with brightest smiles make happy all our way. M ay our Brothers ever prove W orth of such noble love, Long as time shall last, or earth shall have a day. C h o r u s — A fte r each verse Cheer! Cheer! Cheer! W ith hearts rejoicing! Brightly sparkles every eye And our bosoms feel the glow, Hearts of Brothers only know A s we sing the song of Beta Theta Pi.

Chapter V — T h e Fraternity Badge

THE BADGE I W EAR W . S h e p a r d s o n , Denison ’82 I h e badge I wear! The name I bear! W ith you these treasures I may share ; The gleaming light from the three stars there; The wreath of gold, the diamond rare; The hidden things of that emblem fair; W e’ll ne’er forget, mid life’s graver care, The name we bear, the badge we wear. F

r a n c is

Out of memory’s store, through an open door, They beckon us back to days of yore. Time halts for an hour in his hurried flight, The milestones we watch run backward tonight. W e meet at “ a scene where brothers greet” W ith the grip of faith and friendship sweet. Across the long years we hear voices call, They “ are singing again in the dear old hall.” They are singing a song of a “ shield he bears,” “ Our beauteous shield,” of a wreath he wears, And we catch the glint from the diamond bright In the mellowing glow of the altar’s light: The badge we wear! The name we bear! There’s never a pleasure of life compares W ith the joy of the boy “ in the old porch chairs,” Singing the lays of his college days— The long-loved songs in old Beta’s praise. There’s “ Gemma Nostra candeat,” “ Three Hungry Greeks,” and songs like that, They carry us back to the mystic shrine, T o vows there plighted, “yours and mine,” To the fluttering light of the candle’s flame, To the badge we wear— the honored name; And when the loving cup starts round, The fabled fount of life is found. A h ! The warm heart of youth in the spirit stays, When thus backward we gaze through memory’s haze Though we toil in the moil of life’s hard ways ; Though we watch the “ sun in the Western sky Nearing the foam,” as the days speed by.

A LOST BETA BADGE

The badge we wear ! The name we bear! This through the years be our constant prayer, When we lift our hands to the “ God on high,” And plead that He “ bless Beta Theta Pi,” For help to keep clean the name we bear, T o keep ever bright the badge we wear.

A LOST BETA BADGE F

r a n c is

W . S

h epardson,

Denison

’82

I was initiated into Alpha Eta chapter on March 19, 1880. Being a healthy Beta infant I devoured a good deal of fraternity food. I want to reproduce from the Beta Theta P i for April, 1880, part of a letter which interested me much when I read it for the first time, and which has some value in connection with what is to follow in this story: C o l u m b u s , A r k ., March 30, 1880 C. J. S e a m a n , Cleveland, O.: Brother Greek— A circular came to this office this morning, addressed to David S. Walker, and was promptly forwarded to him. Catching the insignia of dear old Beta, I ran through the contents, and am delighted to put myself once more in communication with the fraternity. While a stu dent at Oglethorpe University, near Milledgeville, Georgia, in 1859, I be came a Beta, and upon this w ise: W e had a society, known by its initial letter “ E ,” which had for its aims and purposes almost the identical charac teristics of Beta, and it is with pride I can now recall the standing of that modest pink rosette upon commencement occasions. Upon four of those occasions successively she bore oif the highest honors of the institution. In 1858, J. Graham Brown came from Davidson College, N.C., and was received into the “ E ” society. V ery soon thereafter, he began correspond ing with the Phi chapter at Davidson, of which he was a member, looking toward the establishment of a chapter at Oglethorpe. Correspondence even tually resulted in a commission from the constituted authorities to the Phi chapter, and the chapter was organized by ushering the “ E ” into the fond embrace of mother Beta. I have no data by which to establish dates, and speak only from memory, but, if you have a copy o f the catalogue of 1859, you will see that Phi was the last chapter given and that Brown’s name was the last on the list (printed erroneously, however, J. J. Brown). Our chapter was not established in time to permit of it being enrolled in the year’s publication, a copy of which is before me. The political excitement of i860 became so intense that our class was hurried through, and graduated a month earlier than the regular season, and was the last class of any note emitted from the dear old college. Her finances were largely invested in Confederate securities, and, of course, lost. A fter the war, her friends gathered all available resources and moved to Atlanta, hoping to again place her in posi tion to regain her lost fortunes, and launch upon a career of still nobler and higher proportions. Their hopes all faded, as the people were too poor to give that assistance she must have or pass away. A fter two or three years of unsuccessful effort, the trustees abandoned the enterprise, and re

BETA LORE

moved what was left of the old buildings to Milledgeville, and established a high school. Thus much in explanation of the fact that proper stand in the society. Personally, I have many years. I took my badge into the military me to give from memory a few names that are

our chapter never took its been isolated, lo, for these service and lost it. Allow no dishonor to Beta........... J o h n F. G r e e n

The Jetter was printed under the heading, “ Lost Tribes,” and in the catalogue of 1881, on pages 277 and 278, there were printed the names given by Mr. Green in his letter, with a few others which must have been added “ from memory” also, as one and another of the old boys was found. There were twelve of them. According to the catalogue of 1881, eleven served in the Confederate army during the war. Nothing was known of the twelfth, except his name, and no doubt he too joined the army and, perhaps, with others of his chapter mates, was killed in battle. The boys evidently were in earnest in what they attempted, and several of them came out of the struggle with well-won titles. A t a later time two more names were added to the roll, and, with fourteen in all, the roster of this first Chi chapter seemed complete forever. The Union army had cracked the shell of the Confederacy; the notion of shrewd generals that, if the defensive line were passed no opposition would be met, was proved a correct one; and the men who followed Sherman were on that march which was to become historic, “ from Atlanta to the sea.” One day as the Federal soldiers were gathered about their tents, a squad of them was approached by a negro who appeared to have something to tell. He was encouraged to talk and said that his master had gone to the army and that he would point out where that individual had buried his money. A few of the squad went with the negro to a neighboring plantation where, under a tree near the house, he showed a place where the earth had been disturbed quite recently. Using their bayonets as spades, the men dug up a tin box which they pried open. It was filled with papers, jewelry, and little keepsakes. Among the articles was a Beta Theta Pi badge, which a soldier took and pinned upon his coat, thinking that the diamond in the center might bring him something someday. The box was put back in its place, and the soldiers soon moved their camp to another part of the state. A s they neared a goodsized town, the soldier who had the Beta badge wrenched the diamond out of the center, and pinned the battered remnant of the “ breastpin” upon his vest, where he carried it for some weeks. One day he showed it to a fellow soldier, who happened to be a college man, and who, recognizing the insignia of the rivals of a few years before, said: “ That is a college society badge, the Beta Theta Pi, There was a chap ter in my college. You don’t want to throw it away. Give it to the chaplain, he is a Beta, and maybe it will be of interest to him.” The soldier replied, “ I ’ll do it” ; but he forgot the promise, and kept the emblem. A long time after this— it was after the war was over, I think— the soldier met the chaplain of his regiment, and gave him the bit of jewelry, telling

A LO ST BETA BADGE

him how it had come into his hands. The chaplain, John Hogarth Lozier, De Pauw ’57, was one of the kind of Betas known as “ red-hot.” He was a convention goer, and whenever he met anyone from the South he told the story, but no chapter list contained the name which was engraved on the back of his war relic, and no one knew of the family which had this Beta representative. Cherishing the badge because of the romance connected with it, and failing to restore it to the owner, because he could not be found, the chap lain did the next best thing— sent it to a jeweler and had it repaired. The dents made by the soldier in his attempt to get the diamond out were removed, a new stone was placed in the wreath, a new clasp-pin was fastened upon the back, and the renewed ornament became a prominent article of wear as the chaplain traveled through the land, using his gift of song and speech in entertaining and delighting audiences, who felt as Major M cKinley did when he heard him, “ If the chaplain will continue to sing, I will stay all night to listen.” But fraternity badges will get out of repair, the enamel got dented, the clasp-pin broke, and the relic of some brave Beta of the sunny South was laid away in a bureau drawer to rest in the oblivion which was the lot of the first owner and his chapter. One day in 1893, as I was looking over the list of students enrolled in the University of Chicago, my eye met a line, “ Horace Gillette Lozier, Mt. Vernon, Iowa.”

J. H O G A R T H L O Z IE R An autographed picture presented to W illiam Raimond Baird, bearing the signature much used by Chaplain Lozier “Yours till Reveille.”

That had a genuine Beta sound, as I read it aloud to myself. The idea came quick as a flash, “ If that is the son of ‘the highpriest of Wooglin,’ we must have him in the Chicago chapter.” For, indeed, it would have been an unpardonable offense to have allowed the son of the author of the legend of Wooglin to live in the presence of a Beta chapter without being able to enjoy to the full the words his father had written: “ W e gather again at the shrine, brother, Where none but those can meet Who relish the mystic canine, brother, Which none but the chosen eat.” The spiking committee were soon on his track, and it was not long until the father was made glad by the news that his son was a member of his loved fraternity. And that is why the Lambda Rho chapter of Beta Theta Pi has hanging in its parlor a speaking likeness of J. Hogarth Lozier.

BETA LORE

The initiation of the boy made the father think again of the Beta badge, among the other bits of jewelry in the box in the top bureau drawer. You see, I can locate the box exactly, because we all have such boxes of cast-off but cherished treasures. He took it to a jeweler, who “ fixed it up,” the dents were taken out, the whole back, which had become unsoldered, was removed, and a new one substituted. A little engraving was done, “J. Ho garth Lozier, Delta 57> to H. G. Lozier, Lambda Rho ’94>” and once again “ Three stars shined round and lit the ground, The diamond threw its light around.” as the son helped to “ carve him to de heart,” and the father felt new pride, as he took his seat at the piano to start the song he wrote for u s : “ Again old Wooglin’s legions meet, A joyous happy band, Our boys to greet, our canine eat, And clasp a frater’s hand. And here with joy we greet the ‘boy’ O f distant college days; W e’ll hail him yet, and ne’er forget To toast ‘The Silver Grays.’ ” And these words never mean half as much to a Beta who failed to hear the author of the song give his own interpretation of them. The badge! Well, it was a queer-looking thing; nothing like the bejeweled emblems of the time of this story of which the college boys were so proud. It attracted attention at once because of its shape and general appearance. It was one of the products of the Kirby house of New Haven, Connecticut, which used to furnish most of the fraternities with badges. It was a splendid gift for a father to make to his son, because of the peculiarly romantic circumstances of its checkered history, if not for the inscription upon its reverse, which united two generations in Beta Theta Pi. But there was something else about the badge story. That was the old back. I was just about to go to Ohio, to attend the reunion of District V I of that day, and I took the bit of gold with me. There was no chapter designation on the back; there was no date; there were the traditional clasped hands; there was a name, “ M. Warthen.” I looked in the catalogue of 1881; but there was no Warthen there. I thought of the “ Lost Tribes” letter; because it seemed possible that Sher man’s march might have crossed the jurisdiction of Oglethorpe chapter. But there was no Warthen name there. I wrote to John Calvin Hanna, the catalogue editor. He and his faithful assistant, Ralph K. Jones, hunted in vain for the name, evfen searching through the catalogues of many Southern colleges for traces of such a family. They found two men of the name, one of the University of Virginia, one of some other institution, possibly the University of Missouri; but there was no one who had the initial “ M ” . Surely “ M. Warthen” was one of the members of some “ lost tribe.” In the summer o f 1894, the new University of Chicago made its first test of the plan of having continuous sessions during the year, the traditional long summer vacation being abandoned. A very large number of teachers

A LOST BETA BADGE

came to spend a few weeks in brushing up and getting new ideas about teaching. Among them were a number of Southern people, some of whom happened to board in the same place with myself. I told two of them my story one day and asked them, “ Did you ever meet with the name ‘Warthen’ anywhere in the South ?” One of them, a Georgian by birth, replied, “ There used to be some Warthens (he pronounced it Werthen) in Sandersville, Georgia. You write a letter to the postmaster at that place, and ask him about it, and I have a notion you will get on the right track.” That night I wrote a letter something like th is: “ P o stm aster

S a n d e r s v il l e ,

Georgia:

Dear Sir— I am trying to find a man named ‘M. Warthen,’ who was a college student when the Civil W ar broke out, and was a member of the Beta Theta Pi college fraternity. I have seen a badge with his name upon it. He may have been a student of the college in Milledgeville, Georgia. A Southern gentleman tells me that there used to be people of the name in your county, and I write this, hoping that you can locate the desired indi vidual, if he was not killed in the war.” I guessed the Milledgeville part, because there were the “ Lost Tribes,” there were no records of the chapter, and the list for the catalogue of 1881 was made up “ from memory.” I put in the sentence about the possibility of his being killed in the war, because I thought that an explanation of the failure to remember him as one of the Oglethorpe boys, if he belonged to that chapter, as I was inclined to think for reasons already indicated. A few days later I received a letter postmarked “ Warthen, Georgia,” and this is what it said: F. W . S h e p a r d s o n , Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, III.: My Dear Sir— Yours of 5th instant, addressed to postmaster at Sanders ville, Ga., has been handed to me for answer. In 1861, I was a student at Oglethorpe University (Presbyterian), near Milledgeville, this state, and just previous to the opening of hostilities between the states, a chapter of Beta Theta Pi was established, of which I was a member. W e ordered our badges from the North, but before they came, I left college to enter the serv ice. The badges came,' however, and the president or chairman of the society placed my badge in the hands of a young lady for me, and in the turmoil of war it was misplaced, and this is the first time I have heard of the badge since 1862 or 3. The lady was Miss Sallie Wright, who about that time married the president of the Beta Theta Pi club. His name was Capt. Edwin P. Cater, formerly of Charleston, S.C., whose father, years ago, was a prominent Presbyterian divine. Who has the badge now, and what steps should I take to secure it? From whom was it obtained, and how? I have about forgotten the names of the members of our society, but I think E. P. Cater, of Charleston, S .C .; McGaw, Mobile, A la .; Coleman, Columbus, G a .; Winfield W olfe, Marengo County, A la.; Col. John L. Ham mond, Savannah, G a .; and others beside myself. I don’t know that any are now living. Colonel Hammond and myself kept up a correspondence until his death a few years ago. He was a cousin to Miss Sallie Wright, and it was through him in the ’6o’s that I heard she had had the badge and

BETA LORE

had misplaced it. Let me hear from you at once on the subject. very anxious to get the badge. Truly, etc. M

P.S.

acon

I am

arth en

I have forgotten all the grips, signs, etc., of Beta Theta Pi. M. W.

I had some correspondence with Mr. Warthen after this, and he gave me information about the chapter and names of the members, all of which material I turned over to the catalogue editor. He wrote that the Beta girl was dead, a fact I was sorry to learn; because it would be a fitting end to this story to give a letter from her, telling how and where the tin box was buried, and whether she ever recalled, after the war was over, where she had placed the Beta badge which belonged to her sweetheart’s chapter mate who was at the front fighting for his country. I left the correspondence to be continued by J. Hogarth Lozier. But the story has not been forgotten, as I have pondered over the probability that the soil of the South, which was drenched with the blood of Betas, North and South, contains locked up in its secret places many a treasure buried by a brave boy in gray who never came home to dig it up; and I have felt thankful that a new generation has grown up which has forgotten the bitterness of those years of war. For “ we are coming from the East and we’re coming from the West, and the boys of sunny Southland are coming with the rest” : and may we not believe that much has been done by such fraternities as Beta Theta Pi to bind up the broken bands of union and to stimulate new interest in a common country. There never again can be discord if . . . hand grip into hand, And eye look into eye, A s love flows free from heart to heart In Beta Theta Pi.”

HOW BETAS H AVE WORN THE BADGE K

arl

W . F

is c h e r ,

Indiana

’25

In Banta’s Greek Exchange for October, 19 2 4 , there was an article by Francis W . Shepardson, Denison ’8 2 , headed “ Peregrinations of the Pin.” It read as follow s: “ The ninetieth birthday of Chauncey M. Depew led to the publication of some interesting articles about his life experiences. One magazine printed a strip of pic tures showing the famous public man at various periods of his long career. In one o f these, perhaps taken in his senior year at Yale, a ‘Bones’ pin appears upon the bow of his old-fashioned black stock. One almost shivers as he thinks of the shock to N ew Haven were one of the select fifteen of 1924 to make such a con spicuous display o f the skull and bones on such a background as a bow tie. “ Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in Hits. , That is the way the Greek-letter society man of fo rty years ago would have made his comment. In these unlearned and uncultured college days it may be better to translate the familiar sentence. Times are changed and we are changed in them. W hat seems strange to the college man o f 1924 may be the style favored by his youngest brother in 1944 and the latter may wear the cut of clothes his father wore in 1894. Any picture of a college group o f fifteen years back awakens the humorous comment of the undergraduate, as he

HOW BETAS H AVE WORN TH E BADGE

studies clothes, cut and combing o f hair, or width of hat brim. It is a safe guess that the sheik of 1924, with his long, straight locks held in place by shining unguent, will excite the risibilities o f the novitiates of 1934. “ The peregrinations o f the pin have been as numerous as the alterations in hats, coat lapels, vest openings and width of trousers. Since ‘our ChaunceyV senior days, the migrations and styles of fraternity badges have been many. They have been more or less closely associated with the attitude of members toward their fraternities and o f outsiders toward these organizations. In times of blatant advertising badges have been large and flamboyant; in times o f conservative repression they have been small and less conspicuous. Badges now, as a rule, are much smaller than they were in 1880. They symbolize pride in membership rather than a proclaimed superiority to a horde o f barbarians, forever outside the pale. The advertising feature, once prominent and objectionable, has almost entirely disappeared. Real values have sur vived. “The little gold pin on a Y ale senior’s tie in 1856 was matched by many similar displays. Perhaps Senior Depew wore his Psi Upsilon diamond up there too. Bow ties, black or white, carried big slab shields, diamonds, crosses, which were larger than the surface to which they were attached. Not infrequently below them on an expansive shirt front were studs, also in badge form, well-to-do students and a legion

J A M E S J. P A R K S , ’72

L U K E P A L M E R , JR., ’72

H ow K n ox Betas W ore T heir Badges in 1872 of those poor in purse often leading in such display. In the periods o f popularity o f the puff tie its purpose as an obscurer o f a soiled dickey was often supplemented as another utility because its meeting folds made a fine place fo r affixing the frequently heavily jeweled emblem of the ‘frat.’ B y the way, the disappearance of the now obnoxious abbreviation ‘frat’ in favor o f ‘fraternity’ has accompanied the reduction in the size and vulgarity o f display o f the badge. “ The coat lapel, once and fo r a long time, was the favorite resort for the frater nity pin. Like bow and puff tie the position had one distinct advantage. The traveler on the cars, fo r example, quickly found his fellow Greek, and many warm friend ships resulted from such chance meetings which were particularly numerous where a railroad traversed territory containing several college towns. The desirability of some sort o f identification symbol is often urged, and several fraternities use such devices now. Some enthusiasts, seeking to promote acquaintance and fellowship among college men in a day of friendly interfraternity feeling, have even advocated the use of a common lapel button to indicate that the wearer belongs to a college frater nity. A t any rate, in the olden days, the coat lapel sign board was generally used and brought results in acquaintance. “From the coat lapel the badge jumped to the vest. In that region the mysterious insignia had a great range for travel. W hen fastened close to the V the badge might be seen by all, thus preserving some of the advantages claimed for the coat lapel. I f the vest itself had a lapel, the pin peregrinated by inch variations from point to point, sometimes fastened high up and again coming close to the button line. Then it took a flying leap to the extreme low er point o f the vest, from which post of vantage it again traveled upwards until it found rest and peace for the nonce over the heart.

IO O

BETA LORE

“ In the meantime a perplexing problem presented itself. How should the badge pe inclined? Should it always be absolutely true to a meridian line, or might it be inclined a bit to the right or to the left? Should it follow the lines o f the clothing one wore or remain fixed in position, regardless of stripe or check? The Psis wore theirs perpendicular, the Deltas liked the horizontal effect, and the Sigs in clined theirs in the direction of their mother chapter. O f course all rules were laid aside when one went swimming carrying the precious bauble in his mouth, although the regulations were again in force when the badge was fastened to night shirt or pajamas. “ W hile these extraordinarily important matters were under discussion, the dealer in ‘junk’ appropriated the advertising features of the fraternity badge. He offered among his wares baggage checks, watch fobs— nice brass ones bearing Greek letters — belt buckles, with letters tacked on or cut in as preferred, watch chain danglers o f many varieties, lettered pipes, canes, rings— the whole range of money eating, miscellaneous merchandise on which the jewelers have prospered. And all this time the plain badge, usually bereft of its jeweled settings, rested quietly underneath the coat and close to the heart. “ But it is said that many college boys are calling for larger badges. They are using badges again as sign boards in college annuals, after quite a period of more suitable coats of arms. Perhaps the badge is beginning to feel the wanderlust again. If it does, it may re turn to the bow tie once more, w;here the famous N ew Y o rk railroad man and political leader wore his ‘Bones’ pin long years ago.”

S A M U E L J. K IR K W O O D , ’61

It occurred to me that, from photo graphs which I have been collecting in connection with the history of the Indi ana chapter, such an article might be illustrated. This I have attempted to do in what follows, making certain notes which have occurred to me as I have arranged the pictures for the proper grouping. According to the first constitution of Beta Theta Pi, reprinted in Forty Years of Fraternity Legislation, Article 9 said:

“ The badge shall not be worn by any member whilst in attendance at college, or in such other places as may be deemed by himself, or the members of this associa tion unsuitable.”

This badge was the one which had the three stars and a crescent for its decoration and the heart and spear on the back. The next year, 1840, the crescent was changed to the now treasured diamond and wreath. Black enamel appeared upon the face of the badge, and the two clasped hands were engraved upon the back. Since Pi chapter was not founded until August 27, 1845, first type badge probably was never seen at the old Indiana College. When Gavin Riley McMillan, Miami ’46, journeyed to Bloomington for his junior year in college, 1845, to institute what was first called the Kappa chapter, he pro bably owned one of the revised badges. This style wats of the large slab shield type that are usually to be found about the older chapters of the fraternity. But McMillan did not wear his treasured shield upon his tie bow, nor even upon his vest. If he had exposed it to “barbarian” view all of his hopes would have been defeated. The president of Indiana was

HOW BETAS H AVE W ORN TH E BADGE

IOI

the Reverend Andrew Wiley, formerly president of Washington College, the institution that joined with Jefferson College to make Washington and Jefferson at Washington, Pennsylvania. While an able teacher and a well-read man, Dr. W iley was rather terse and caustic in his manner, hence he was not popular with the students. The whole attitude toward secret societies at Indiana was antagonistic. There were two literary so cieties connected with the University, the Athenian, the oldest having been founded in 1830, and the Philomathean having entered the arena somewhat later. These two societies had their own halls, their own libraries, and held regular meetings. And so, to return to Riley McMillan and his mission at Indiana, we find him organizing a chapter in due course. Tw o months after the date of or ganization, when he had returned to O x ford for his senior year, he wrote a letter to Stanley Matthews, Cincinnati ’40, in which he said: “ I have been requested to write a letter of introduction to one of the Cincinnati chapter for Thomas Babington Graham, Indiana ’46, and others of the Bloomington chapter who will be in the city shortly for the purpose of obtaining pins.” When these Betas re turned to Bloomington they must have guarded their badges very carefully for the Indiana chapter maintained a sub rosa character until its re-organization in 1854. I have tried to find some information concerning these early Hoosier Betas but the most that I have obtained about them regarding the position in which they wore their badges is to the effect that those were never worn in Bloomington, but when the Betas were at home, they were sometimes worn on the inside of M. C. R O B E R T S O N , ’62 the waistcoat or vest. Quite different were the Betas of 1854 who arrived from Greencastle at the invitation of the president of the University, William Mitchell Daily, De Pauw ’36. These two Betas had become dissatisfied with the conditions at old Asbury and so concluded to enter Indiana for their senior year. They wrote to President Daily, and he, having been elected a member of Delta, replied upon stationary bearing the cabalistic characters “ Beta Theta P i” at the top, and invited them to “ come over and bring as many students as you can.” The result was the re-establishment of the Indiana chapter, which had died in 1850. These new Betas were advocates of outdoor advertising, since they wore their badges upon the knot of their flowing bow ties. Phi Delta Theta entered Indiana in 1848 and its early members also favored the tie as a place of adornment for the shield. The early members of the Indiana Beta chapter, for the most part, were farmers’ boys and they did not have much money to spend on jewelry. Consequently the “ diamond” in most

102

BETA LORE

On the back of the badge was carried clasped hands, the letter n the owner’s name, and the date of the foundation of the chapter. It was not until aftei the Civil W ar that the class of the initiate made its appearance instead of August 27, 1845, or August 3, 1855, the date of the re-establishment. During the Civil W^ar period a pin of another size, slightly smaller than the large shield, appeared and began to court some favor among the mem bers of the chapter. This was a Kirby badge and of hollow gold, lead-filled as were the other older ones. W ith the entrance of Sigma Chi in 1858, the Miami Triad began in earnest. A ll three of these fraternities proudly proclaimed to the world at large that they were members by the badge placed on the tie. In 1868

H A R R Y E. W IS E , ’88

H A R R Y R. D A V ID S O N , ’01

a new society appeared called Delta Psi Theta. One of its members later became a Beta, William Dallas Bynum, ’69, so perhaps this is the first student that Pi “ lifted.” Fashion changed, and with 1870 came a new practice. The badge moved to the coat lapel and by 1880 some of them were beautifully jeweled with borders of diamonds and other stones. The picture of Robert Foster Hight, ’88, shows two badges, and he might well have worn a third. Hight was a great exponent of fraternity and he wanted every one in college to join an organization. This was impossible for the chapters were too few, so, long before such helpfulness became common, he organized a chapter of another fraternity and conse quently became involved in a tangle that took years to straighten out. The small pin on his vest is that of a senior society, the first at Indiana, “ Jaw Bones” or Tau Epsilon Pi, which he organized in 1888. Membership in this was limited to seven men of the Senior class.

HOW BETAS H AVE WORN TH E BADGE

103

Along about 1875 the passion for “ lifting” began to take hold of the members of Pi chapter. With the help of one of the sororities, Kappa Alpha Theta, they secured members from all of the existing chapters at Indiana. In fact, in 1875, a note which I found in a record book signified the willingness of one whole chapter to come over to Beta Theta Pi. A fter diligent search I may say that I have never found any Indiana Betas who were seduced away, so the affair seems to have been a one sided game. This raiding led to many peculiar situations. There are alumni of our chapter still living who have belonged to two fraternities, and one member now dead had three to his credit: One of the interesting things that might be found would be a man who had badges from two different fraternities. None of our “ lifted” members seem to have had the collecting habit as far as the fraternity jewelry went. Probably, in every case the badge of the other fraternity was returned.

R. F. H IG H T , ’88

W . A . M U S S E T T , ’89

In the early eighties, the vest began to affect a lapel, so the badge conviently moved over to that. The one pictured has a diamond and emerald border deeply crown-set and is almost half-an-inch thick. President Shepardson, in his article, has hinted that the badge has been worn at the same place upon the pajamas since time immemorial. It is an interesting fact, perhaps, that the Indiana Betas were so proud of their badges that they even wore them on the athletic field, A famous athlete of the nineties told me last year that he lost his badge while playing foot ball on Thanksgiving day. Paul McGinnis, Wisconsin, ’25, says: “ Four Alpha Pi Betas wore their pins on their crew jerseys when they rowed on Wisconsin’s first crew in 1892. The men were Brothers J. F. A. Pyre, C. C. Case, H. B. Boardman, and H. H. Jacobs. A picture of the first Wisconsin eight appeared last year in the Badger, the student yearbook. The pins, with guards, were easily discernible upon the jerseys of these four men. Each pin was equipped

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104

with chain and guard and each was tilted slightly. None of the other five men in the picture were wearing badges of any kind. One can easily tell that the badge worn is that of Beta Theta Pi.” Another tendency reached Indiana in the nineties and that moved the badge downward along the opening of the vest to a point about midway between the V and the points. W ith the beginning of 1900 the size be came reduced to the present. V ery few jeweled badges were seen and the locus in quo remained near the heart. The day of advertising was past and the details of the badge itself were perfected in place of trials at new chased borders or jeweled embellishments. Today, perhaps, the era of the large badge is coming into its own again. Our jeweler is manufacturing a replica of the Kirby badge and all of the old badges that have lain away for years in dust are being brought out and reburnished for the younger members. From 1845 to 1928 a span of over eighty years has brought many changes in the jewelry of Beta Theta Pi worn at Indiana. Slab badges, small badges, stick pins, buttons, and jeweled badges, have all stood for the same thing. Each wearer has been proud of his privilege and perhaps it makes little difference where the badge has been fastened just so the wearer has sought to uphold the principles it represents.

B^DGE STORIES S oldier ’ s B adge F o u n d . “ I have in m y possession a B eta badge which w as taken from an officer’s coat on a battlefield in F ran ce by a N ashville boy who is a frien d o f mine, and who has endeavored to locate some rela tive o f its ow ner, as he feels certain that the owner o f same w as killed in action. T h e badge bears the name o f S. H . M iller and date February 20, 1914, and is from the T h et§ chapter. I am w ritin g direct to you, hoping you w ill assist me in locating some person to whom I m ay send the badge. I h ave not w ritten direct to the chapter, as I presumed the house w as prob ably vacant fo r the summer. (E. F . B o v rin g , N ashville, Tennessee)

The L. G . Balfour Company wrote General Secretary Bruce on April 8, 1926: “ A Beta Theta Pi badge was found by William Mueller, confectioner at Port Jefferson, L.I., at his store about the first of August, 1925. This badge was recovered by Rev. Frank Voorhees, Rutgers ’92, Pastor of Mount Sinai Congregational Church, Miller Place, New York, and has been sent to this office. W e have advised Rev. Voor hees that we will make an effort to locate the owner, and failing to do so will return the badge to him. Unfortunately the badge is a very old one. It is a hollow back with close set rubies and eight emerald points, and is slightly larger than the official style. The badge apparently was made by a Detroit firm which has long since been out of business. W e are holding the badge and will appreciate your assistance.” B

adge

ound.

A B a d g e R e c o v e r e d . . W e had a peculiar circumstance in Denver re cently. Tw o of the boys from Gamma Delta noticed a jeweled badge, minus diamond and two opals, in a pawnshop window in Pueblo, and made a deposit to hold the pin, while they tried to locate the owner. The name

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105

Harrison, Alpha Omega, ’ io, was on the back, and the catalogue showed that Henry Rogers Harrison of that chapter and year was living in Denver. He was very glad to recover the badge, which he says was stolen from his room at Dartmouth, in either 1908 or 1909. The jeweler who had the badge said it had been sold to him in the past two weeks by a negro who said it was his badge, from “ Booker T. Washington” University. (R. L. H

u gh es)

B a d g e R e s to r e d a t a B a n q u e t . R ev. R obert A . Cutler, Bethany ’go, who w as a pastor o f a Christian church in Richm ond, V irgin ia, from 1884 to 1886, cam e into the possession o f a B eta badge bearing the m arks o f time and use, a fte r it had passed through the hands o f outsiders. H e w as unable to restore it to the owner, although the name w a s on the back. A t a B eta banquet held in Richm ond late in 1887, Mr. C utler noted the sim ilarity o f this name to that o f one o f the speakers o f the evening. O n inquiry he found that the speaker, James Points N elson, was the owner, having lost the badge when a student at W ashington and L ee sixteen years before. Mr. N elson w as the founder o f the K en yon chapter in 1879. L o s t Badge Recovered. The secretary of the Carnegie chapter received a letter dated at Topeka, Kansas, August 16, 1925, signed by Roderick M. Grant, Beloit ’22, of the Associated Press in that city and reading as fol lows : “ I am in possession of a Beta badge bearing the name of C. P. W ag ner, initiated by Gamma Iota on M ay 5, 1920. A few weeks ago a Kappa Sigma, of Washburn College, located here, noticed a woman wearing the Beta pin, minus the diamond. He questioned her, and, as he had suspected, she did not know the significance of the badge. She asked whether it was some lodge; and he replied that it was “ something on that order,” and offered her a dollar for it. She readily accepted the offer. Shortly after ward this Kappa Sigma noticed my own badge, and reported his find. I thanked him, repaid him the dollar, and am ready to return the pin to Brother Wagner, if you can locate him. Probably the easiest way would be for me to mail it C.O.D., if that is agreeable to him. I rather admire the fraternal spirit of a Kappa Sig who will stop a strange woman on the street and invest a dollar to recover a Beta pin, don’t you? The woman, by the way, said she had found the pin on Kansas Avenue, the main busi ness street of Topeka.” A Beta who saw the badge reports that it didn’t look like a Balfour or Auld badge and had no regulation safety catch. There’s a lesson in that for someone.

A B a d g e S t o r y . J. Harold Ryan, Yale ’08, a few years ago sent to the magazine part of a letter written from China by Paul H. Benedict, Yale Jog: “ There are a number of Beta men around here, the Consul at Nanking, D avis; Reisner in Nanking from Phi Chi, and Hood at Suchow from Amherst. W e unearthed a good one on pins this year, which story might go well in the Beta magazine, if you care to pass it on. A t a dance in Nanking about two years ago, I noticed a familiar looking pin on the w ife of an English Doctor in the port, and, when the opportunity presented itself, I asked her about the pin. She said that a curio dealer in Nanking had brought it to her among other things, and she was very

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BETA LORE

much attracted to it, but with no idea of what it represented. She assumed from the writing on it that it must be an old Russian pin of some sort, and she purchased it. It was a Beta pin, set with half pearls. I explained the meaning of the pin to her, but, upon examination, found that the owner had never had it properly engraved on the back, just three rather crude initials. The sequel was about a year later when, on finding that Hood was a Beta, I told him the story, and he said he had lost his Beta pin in Nanking above five years previously. We, of course, immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was his, but, upon closer description, found that it was not, as he had lost a plain pin. About a month later, I told the same story to Davis, and he spotted the original owner of the pin, now dead. I am sorry I have forgotten who he said the owner was. It cer tainly was a coincidence to find two Beta pins lost in Nanking, and then to discover this pin as it was found. Davis is going to try and return the pin to the owner’s widow.” A M i c h i g a n B a d g e S t o r y . In the Michigan chapter in 1864 was Bluford Briscoe Wilson of the class of 1866. He was one of the group of miserable traitors who deserted Beta Theta Pi to have the distinguished honor of founding a Psi Upsilon chapter at Ann Arbor. By some good fortune he seems to have lost his Beta badge before his Beta name was tarnished. The story as told by John E. Whitten, Nebraska ’23, is: “ Mrs. S. D. Moran, of Lincoln, has in her possession an old-fashioned Beta badge. H er husband found it during the Civil W ar— 1862 was the date— at Spanish Fort, Alabama. Not being familiar with fraternities, the Morans had it for many years without knowing what it was. The badge bears on its back the date November 15, 1845, and the name of B. B. Wilson. The badge is quite similar in general appearance to those of the 1870 period, but is, however, slightly larger. The badge is composed of two thin plates, the total thickness being only about that of a ten-cent piece. The gold border is considerably wider, as compared with the black enameled part, than in later badges. The middle one of the three stars at the top is placed above the other two, forming a crescent rather than a straight line. The wreath is engraved on the badge, instead of being a separate piece. There is no diamond, but as the wreath encircles merely a plain gold “ dot” instead of a star, it may be that there was originally a diamond placed there, as at present. However, there is no evidence of the stone’s having been re moved, and it is possible that it was made with this plain dot or circle, rather than either star or diamond. Across one of the upper corners, there is an indentation which indicates that at some time the badge has been stepped on or passed over by some heavy object. This old badge is really very well-proportioned, and a beautiful piece of work for such early times in Beta history.” Years after the Michigan treachery a Michigan• Beta met Wilson in Switzerland. Conversation led to the discovery that both were graduates of the University of Michigan. When the subject of frater nity affiliation was considered Wilson said he was a Psi U and a Beta, mentioned confusion incident to the Civil War, and indicated much affection for Beta Theta Pi. But he added that he had not heard from the Michigan Beta chapter for years. The reason for this last statement is plain: In 1865 all the Ann Arbor traitors were dropped from the roll of Beta Theta Pi

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and consigned to the limbo of lost and forgotten souls. There some of them, reflecting over their shameful act, came to regret bitterly their deed of college dishonor; but they lived to see the Michigan chapter again flourish ing and some of them to see the trend of their lives affected by reason of their youthful carelessness of sacred obligations. But, like Wilson, none of them “ heard from the Michigan chapter for years.” D enver ’ s O ld T im e P in s . Most of us have seen one of the old badges such as were given initiates previous to 1870, but they are not common enough to cease being curiosities, and we venture to say that few chapters can boast of two active members wearing them, as is the case with Alpha Zeta. Both of these badges are from Delta chapter, De Pauw. When Oake R. Jay, 1927, was initiated in 1924, the late Chancellor Buchtel presented him with his own badge in token of grateful appreciation of the faithful care Oake had given him in the illness which later terminated in his death. A lifelong friend and Beta brother of Chancellor Buchtel was Frost Craft, also a Delta Beta. On the tenth anniversary of his death his badge was presented to David Duncan, 1929, son o f Dean Duncan of the College of Arts and Sciences. These are the extremely large badges, almost identical in pattern with the official badge of today. — The Kiyi, April, 1926 T w o O l d B a d g e s . Down among the hills of Athens County, Ohio, the Beta Kappa chapter in 1925 had two interesting Beta pins to look at. In 1854 Jay Albert Rich was initiated into what was then Kappa chapter, and secured a pin with the date 1854 upon it. Eight or ten years after his death, that is about 1920, his widow presented the badge to the chapter. By formal vote it was determined that the succeeding chapter presidents should wear the pin as an official badge of office. The other pin is worn by Joseph Collier, who was initiated on March 21, 1924, the son of William Parker Collier, who was initiated September 29, 1873, son ° f Charles Henry Collier, who was initiated in 1854, all three being members of the Ohio chapter. T w o I n t e r e s t i n g B a d g e s . W riting from Canton, Ohio, on February 20, 1923, Carl Frederick Duerr, Denison ’ 10, said: “ You will probably be interested to know that I am hoping to take to Granville with me this Saturday the Beta pin of Henry Adam Wise, Alpha Eta No. 1, which is a gift he is making to the chapter. I am not sending this information to the boys as Judge W ise has not yet given me the pin except to tell me this morning in response to my request for the loan of the pin to show the chapter that he would be glad to loan it to me but that he thought also that he would ask me to give it to the boys to keep. You probably have seen his pin and if you will recall, it has in it a reasonably large diamond so that I am sending you this information so that you can formulate some way of best preserving it. M y own suggestion is that it be made a presi dent’s pin to be worn only by the president of the chapter, but my only fear is that we would be exposing it to numerous chances of loss. I am also hoping to bring with me and secure for presentation to the chapter if possible the pin of W est L. Alexander, of the local organization, which was in existence previous to our chapter, called Kappa Phi Lambda. This has on the back of it the name of West Alexander unusually engraved as

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W . L X & R . Mr. Alexander is now confined in the hospital and Judge Wise and myself have recently visited him several times, and it is likely that we will visit him again before I come to Granville.” B ic y c l in g T h r o u g h F r a n c e . “ A1 is working out of Tacoma now, selling oil, and is liable to drop in on most any of you one of these days. He has covered quite a bit of the world, nudging elbows with the king and queen of Norway, and has the honor of being the tennis champion of Greece and Southern Russia. He has some interesting tales of the Olympic games, of the championship tennis matches at Wimbledon and at Forest Hills, as well as of his life in Greece, Turkey, and Russia with the American Armenian Relief Organization. One of the most interesting of his stories to us, was of a bicycle trip through France. He stopped at a little inn, and looking across the room saw a man sitting at another table who wore what appeared to be a fraternity pin. A 1 went over to the fellow and found the proud wearer of a Beta pin. The two then went on together, bicycling through Southern France. You fellows who know the thrill of seeing the little old eight cornered shield on a train or some place here in America, can imagine how it would feel to run across it in a country where the chance of finding any fraternity pin is about as big as the shadow of a fly speck on a dark night.” So much from an alumni letter of Washington State chapter recounting the European experiences of A l fred Downing Merritt, ’23. It would be a more interesting story if the name of the other Beta were given.

Claude L. Howes, Maine ’88, of Boston, has a Beta pin which was presented to him by his father and mother before his graduation and was made about fifty years ago. It was fashioned from the first pin worn by a member of the University of Maine chapter and has a double row of jewels, with eighteen diamonds and thirty-two rubies, all cut stones. The actual value of the pin is considerable and its sentimental value, of course, is beyond price. The unique feature of this badge is that it has no diamond in the center, although the wreath is in its accustomed place. T

ow es

adge.

A C u r i o u s B a d g e S t o r y . A pledge of the Missouri chapter was work ing on a ranch in Eastern Kansas in 1921. He went into a restaurant in the town near by to get something to eat and while sitting at the counter felt something scratching on his boot. He kicked the mud away and picked up a Beta pin bearing the marks “ E. N. Nellis, B.M. Sept., 1918.” The Missouri delegate to the convention of 1922 at West Baden, Indiana, Prewett B. Turner, ’23, brought the badge with him and turned it over to the president of the fraternity. The latter wrote the Purdue chapter for the address of Nellis, who was informed about his badge. He told the rest o f the story in a letter from Topeka, Kansas, dated September 18, 1922: “ In February, 1921, I was in Manhattan, Kansas, visiting the Gamma Ep silon chapter at the time of their initiation of a new Freshman class. The town of Manhattan is some fifty-eight miles west of Topeka, and I was ready to drive back by noon on Monday. I had been showing the fresh men the correct way to wear the badge, and immediately after that I looked

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at my watch and saw that it was a few minutes of twelve. I said goodbye to the boys and, leaving the house, put up the side curtains on my car and stopped at the Delta Delta Delta house for my wife who had been visiting there. W e drove straight to Topeka, and upon coming into my office and taking off my coat I found that I had lost my pin somewhere. Advertising in the Manhattan and Topeka papers did no good, and the boys at the Gamma Epsilon house looked all about, the place, in the street in front, and everywhere they could think of. Along in June, 1921, a boy came into one of the local jeweler’s stores and tried to sell a Beta Theta Pi badge, saying that he was without money and had to get home. The jeweler of course refused to buy it, although the boy told him that it had cost him $40 and he was willing to take $15 for it. The jeweler looked upon the back of the pin and seeing my initials there asked the boy if that was his name. The boy replied that it was, and, as the jeweler was not certain about my initials, he tried to call me up. That very day the South western Bell Telephone Company had had a fire which put all the exchanges in the city out of business for twenty-four hours. While the jeweler was trying to telephone me, the boy left the store. This is the first time I have heard of the pin since and had really given it up for lost.” Acknowledging the receipt of the badge, Nellis stated that he stopped for a few minutes near the restaurant in the town where the badge was found and probably lost the badge as he got out of his car. T h e B a d g e in I n d ia . W illiam B . Parm alee, Western Reserve ’83, at a Chicago B eta banquet, A p ril 12, 1922, told how his daughter m ade a trip to India during the previous winter. She w ore her fath e r’s badge on the trip. A t the hospital in A llahabad a doctor noticed the badge and inquired about it. O n learning the name and the chapter o f the ow ner he said that in his college days he w ent from W ooster, Ohio, to Cleveland w ith a group o f Betas to initiate students to revive the W estern R eserve chapter. T h e doctor w as H en ry Form an, Wooster ’81. Parm alee, ow ner o f the badge, w as one o f those initiated at the tim e o f F orm an ’s visit. So runs the round o f life J

The Oregon chapter has as one of its prized possessions the Beta Theta Pi badge worn in college by Riley Evans Strat ton, Miami ’44. He was a graduate of Farmers College, College Hill, Ohio, and was initiated in order to establish a chapter in that institution. He cast his lot with the new state of Oregon and was a justice of its Supreme Court from 1859 until his death in 1866. Curi ously enough he sat on the bench with Joseph Gardner Wilson, Miami ’56, a student of Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio, who was initiated at Miami just before he himself was, with the purpose of starting a chapter at Marietta. Neither of them was able to start the desired chapter. Brother Wilson also went to Oregon where he was on the Supreme Court from 1862 to 1870. He was elected to Congress in 1872, but died at Marietta, Ohio, on July 2, 1873. The Stratton badge was presented to the Oregon chapter by Fred erick H. Young, Oregon ’ 14, who wrote on March 11, 1916: “ The pin be longed to Riley Evans Stratton, Miami ’44, and it came into my possession R

il e y

S tr a tto n ’s B

adge.

BETA LORE

in the following manner. His widow, a Mrs. Tilford, died in Portland, Ore gon, in M ay 1915, being survived by her third husband. The administrator of the estate was the father of my intended wife and, in going over her per sonal property with the surviving husband, he found this Beta pin. Mr. Til ford, not knowing what it was, showed it to the administrator and he to his daughter, who recognized it and contrasted it with her own Beta pin. It was then given to her and she gave it to me. The gold border is raised instead of lowered around the black enamel which bears the usual charac ters, and shows that a stone has at one time been in its proper place. The reverse bears the clasped hands and the name ‘R. E. Stratton.’ I showed the pin to Delos Needham upon his recent visit to Beta Omega, and he told me that, while in Salem, Oregon, recently, he found the grave of R. E. Stratton and marked it. Two peculiar circumstances are, that this pin should have remained unseen since the death of Mr. Stratton in Salem, Oregon, in 1866, when he was on the state supreme bench, and that it should have come to me at Eugene, his home, when there are still several Stratton families there forty-nine years after his death. The pin itself is in perfect condition with the exception of the missing stone, and the fact that the black enamel face has evidently been out at some time, for it is now upside down according to the usual relation of the face and the clasp on the back.” W a l t e r D e n n i s o n ’ s B adge. W a lte r E . Dennison, Ohio Wesleyan ’77, w ho took an active part in the extension o f C aliforn ia courtesies to the Convention o f 1915 which met at O akland, C aliforn ia, wore an old-time badge, about which he told this sto ry: In 1877 he and John S. Goodwin, Indiana Asbury ’yy, w ere in a beer-garden in Indianapolis, Indiana, listen ing to the band and, presum ably, exam ining a stein or two, when two big rough-looking fellow s came in, one o f whom had on a B eta badge. Denni son rem arked to G oodwin, “ T h a t fellow has a B eta badge on.” T h ey approached the stranger and made some inquiries. H e replied in ugly tone, “ W h a t business is it to y o u ? ” A ft e r some discussion Dennison bought the badge fo r $1.50, put a new and m ore expensive stone in it, and still w ears it. G u y E a r l ’ s B a d g e . Guy C. Earl, California ’83, whose son and name sake is a member of the same chapter, has a Beta badge of peculiar con struction. The body is made of onyx, the stars, wreath, initials and date being cut into the stone which is bordered with gold set with many small diamonds. His mother had it specially made as a present to him. T h e G u n s a u l u s B a d g e . A t the annual banquet of the Chicago alumni chapter, held in the Union League Club on Wednesday, March 28, 1917, Reverend Frank W . Gunsaulus of Theta chapter made a great Beta speech, recounting the connection of Betas of old with many of the important events of the country’s history. H e showed an old-time, large-sized Kirby badge which had a pearl in it instead of the customary diamond, some member o f his family having changed it. He told how, when he was at Ohio Wes leyan University, it was a Beta stunt to get control of the committee in charge of the lecture association and then to secure Betas only for the

BADGE STORIES

mm lecture course. So the chapter bought a badge on purpose for the Beta lecturers to wear, the badge he then displayed being the one. He stated that it had been worn by Stanley Matthews, George Hoadly, Schuyler Col fax, David J. Brewer and others. W . R. Dobyns was an active member of the Westminster chapter 1883-1886. On July 18, 1893, while he was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Missouri, robbers broke into his house during the absence of the family and, among other articles, stole his Beta pin. In 1899 he removed from Marshall to St. Joseph, Missouri, and became pastor of the First Presbyterian Church there. On M ay 11, 1911, he had a telephone call from the chief of detectives in St. Joseph who inquired it he had lost a class pin bearing his name engraved on the ■ back and the letters BO H on the front. He went to the station and found I that it was his stolen pin. The detective had found it in a pawn shop in I St. Joseph where the robber probably had disposed of it shortly after stealT

obyns

adge.

I j

J o h n W . N o b l e ’ s B a d g e . The badge long worn by the late John W . Noble, Miami ’50, was willed by him to the St. Louis Beta Theta Pi Alumni Club to be handed down through the years as the official badge of the president of that organization. A feature of each annual dinner is the surrender of the badge by the retiring president and its acceptance by the incoming one. Dr. Noble was Secretary of the Interior from 1889 to 1893. During his administration the United States adopted the forest reservation policy by act of March 3, 1891, his courage in the face of much criticism having far-reaching results. He was a lawyer in St. Louis from 1855 until his death, except for the time he spent in the Union Arm y during the Civil W ar and in public service at Washington. He was an enthusiastic Beta always. He died in St. Louis, March 22, 1912.

A l f r e d T o r g e s o n ’s B ad ge. R ussell M arks, Yale ’95, o f S io u x City, Iow a, discovered a N egro porter in a drug store w earing a B eta badge. A ft e r some argum ent he bought it for $2.50. It bore the name o f A lfre d C. Torgeson, Iowa ’ 12. O n M a y 19, 1916, the latter w ro te: “ T h e B eta badge w as mine. It w as w hile B rother R a y G ardiner, also o f the Iow a chapter, w as w earin g the pin that the incident you relate occurred. A s was the custom in our fraternity, freshm en w ere allow ed to w ear the older m en’s pins until their new ones came. In some m anner B rother G ardiner lost the pin w hich had m y nam e and chapter on the back. T h e pin w as given up as lost fo r all time, when B rother M arks o f S io u x C ity found a N egro porter w earin g it in the proudest manner. B rother M arks, as I rem em ber it, w as com pelled to plead w ith the porter in the m ost con vin cin g manner, advising him that he had no right to w ear such a pin, and it w as only a fte r this persuasive argum ent and a fe w dollars rew ard that B rother M arks w as able to get the pin. H e then found that it belonged to me, and I w as much pleased to receive it again, it being the v e ry first pin that I ever w ore as a B eta. T h is pin is still in m y possession and each year I prize it m ore than the year before. It seems to mean m uch m ore to me now than it did when I w as in college, possibly because I appreciate the m eaning and what it stands for m ore than I did w hen in college.”

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W o o d ' s B a d g e . Russell Marks, Yale ’95, vouches for the following story. Some years ago the Sioux City, Iowa, Betas held the annual picnic at Crystal Lake, Nebraska. They found that the town marshal there was wearing a Beta pin. On inquiry of him they learned that he had found the badge on the shore of the lake. Marks bought it from him for five dollars. The name on the back was “ N. P. Wood, Lambda ’90.” Marks got in touch with him and learned of the loss. Wood stated that, three years before, he had been fishing on the lake. He started to pull out his watch to see what time it was, when the ring came off of the watch stem. He made a grab for the watch and caught it, but the ring and its attached fob, upon which the Beta badge was fastened, sank into the water. He was happy to get the badge back after such a curious experience. Wood, who was a physician and served as major in the World War, died in Seattle F o u n d e r R y a n ’ s B a d g e . Milton Sayler, Cincinnati ’98, owns the badge worn by Michael Clarkson Ryan, a founder of the fraternity, this having been willed to him by Mr. Ryan’s daughter. This badge, he says, “ probably is the only pin of its kind in existence, being of the old style with the straight sides and the moon in place of the diamond. It has his name on the back of it. It is needless to say that I am very proud of it.”

A B e t a R i n g S t o r y . Paul M. Fletcher, Case ’13, was with the Thirtyseventh Division at Villers-sur-Marne. When the armistice came he was on detached service with the finance department of the Thirty-third Divi sion. One day a captain of artillery came into the office on a business errand. Fletcher noticed the Beta insignia on a ring he wore, and said to him quietly, “ Captain, have you seen Wooglin over here?” This was the introduction to John L. Craig, Vanderbilt ’08. The latter told Fletcher that he had found quite a number of Beta Theta Pi badges on shirts in salvage piles at the front, some of these shirts being taken off of the wounded in the hospitals. He said he sent the badges to the Paris Alumni chapter for return home. T h e B a d g e A n g l e . A few years ago it was reported that members of one fraternity always wore their badges inclined to the right or left according to the location of their chapter with reference to the place where their fraternity was founded. In true college form this idea spread rapidly among fraternity men and at one of the conventions an inquisitive visitor asked one of the officers of Beta Theta Pi at what angle a Beta badge should be inclined when pinned on the vest. The editor of the Beta Theta P i referred to the query in the following facetious note: Beta badges used to be worn on the stiff bosomed white shirts which tortured man a halfcentury ago. The expansive front widely displayed through an open vest made a good background for the shield and diamond. Then adventurous and novelty-seeking souls utilized the necktie, which, often, was a mere strap, the badge being anchored to the knot. The puff tie followed, its joined folds seeming just the place for the highly jeweled badge of the period. Then the coat lapel claimed preeminence as badge headquarters.

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Travelers in fraternity territory found their fellow members easily then. That seemed such a shameless parade of pride that “ under the coat” became the general rule. “ Over the heart” added a touch of sentiment. In that quiet secluded spot the badges have rested for several college generations. Now the problem of the exact angle of displacement from the perpendicular is disturbing the active members of the different fraternities. It is a very serious and solemn matter. Our suggestion is that for Beta Theta Pi, Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, be made the magnetic pole, or the North star, or the Norm, or what have you?, and that all Beta badges be inclined, according to the markings of the compass, dependent upon the geographical relationship to Miami. Thus the Cleveland Betas would wear theirs in clined to the right; Chicago Betas would wear theirs inclined to the le ft ; while the Betas on “ Bo’s” football team, Danville being about due south of Oxford, would wear theirs straight up. It would be necessary to have carefully prepared tables of angles, so as to have each chapter inclination exactly right. Betas in the Orient being in the antipodes, of course, would wear their badges upside down. There may be other better solutions of this extremely important problem. Ours is offered merely as a guide or stimulus to thought.

Chapter V I— Beta Boys

SERENADING “W hen the earth is wrapped in slumber, And the stars shine brightly down Then we leave our toil and studies, A nd our cares in Beta drown. Then with jov we meet our brothers And with them raise voices high, And again in hearty friendship Pledge to Beta Theta Pi.”

The “ singing chapters” know and love that song. The high tenors always enjoy it. “ Pitch her high” always was tne plea of Warrington K. L. W ar wick, Kenyon, ’84, when the song-leader announced “ When the Earth.” None who knew that genial soul when he was alive will ever forget “ Palley’s” falsetto on that great song. Perhaps it helped “ Ed” Good and “ Lon” Snyder to prepare themselves for enrollment in “ The Ten” who started the Founders’ Fund. Who knows? They used to enjoy singing it under the “ sem” windows at Granville years ago on some of those nocturnal ex cursions from Gambier. Did you ever lock arms at the entrance of the Monnett Hall grounds at Delaware and join in James T a ft Hatfield’s stirring marching song as the candles began to glow in the windows of the rooms of the Beta girls ? “ W e come with heart and voice united W ith one accord our song we raise. And wake the loud and sounding chorus, Singing our fair old Beta’s praise. Here, where we meet in bonds fraternal, Here, where our sacred mem’ries twine, W e bring with jo y our choicest laurels T o lay, fair Beta, on thy shrine.”

It has always been so. The serenades and the preparation for them help to make the singing chapters and the singing chapters are the ones which write the new songs. Oyer half a century Dr. S. N. Wilson, Hanover, ’72, re calls the serenades. He wrote a song for such use. “ Pure in thyself and grand in thy aim G lory shall ever encircle thy name; W reathing a garland o f fairest design, Decked with the gems o f mind.”

The melody was one of George F. Root’s best, and the chorus had an appeal all its own: “F ar and wide the praise of Beta sing, Out on the air the happy chorus ring! Joyful in heart may each brother be Under the mystic three.”

114

S IN G IN G A T H A N O V E R The second stanza carried those two lines which inspired many a Beta boy to greater endeavor. No one can estimate their far-reaching influence. “ H igh on the scroll of honor and fame, Beta hath sons the laurels to claim.”

But the third stanza was the one all waited for. “Dear to us all are the W ho in the triumphs E ver may they, as our Dazzle with beauty’s

smiles o f the fair o f Beta can share; Diamond bright light.”

Our .serenade songs are many and beautiful. The songs of Beta Theta Pi have had great power in creating that sentiment which has made the fraternity strong. ★ ★ ★

SINGING AT HANOVER S t a n le y C oulter,

Hanover

’ 70

“ Our beauteous shield he bears; The wreath o f gold he wears, And diamond bright Oh, may he ever gain Ty Pure and unsullied fame For Beta’s glorious name, F or Truth and Right.”

When I was initiated matters were not as they are now in 1928. I am not saying that they were better; I am only saying that they were different. Initiation was a serious matter. It was preceded by no rough work or stunts. It did not depend for its impressiveness upon cowls and gowns and mysterious lights. It was definitely and seriously obligatory; all charged with duty and responsibility. In the Hanover chapter we usually opened the ceremonies with a song. For the most part it was “ Blest be the tie that binds Our hearts in Christian love, etc.”

Boy as I was, that struck me as an anachronism. W e needed something more personal, more directly applicable to the function. So, at the mature age of fifteen, I evolved, “A s Brothers Now W e Meet.” It was written to be sung to “ America,” but a later generation enamored of “ barber shop swipes” changed it to its present air. And “ that’s that.” W e did not dance or play cards; there were no movies or autos or telephones or radios. W e had to do something. The various chapters, therefore, organized into serenade parties of various sorts, quartettes, double quartettes, ensemble, instrumental— anything we could do, or thought we could do, in the musical line. Iota for years was noted for its quartette of serenaders. It was the “ singingest” bunch I ever knew. These serenades were our main dissipation. In some way the news would reach favored young ladies that the Betas would serenade on a certain night. A t about eleven we would start out.

BETA LORE A fter singing the proper allotment we would turn as if to go, when a door would fly open, a light flash out, and we would enter for a gorgeous “ feed.” When eight or ten girls were serenaded in a single night it was hard not only on the throat but on the stomach. It was natural to make our own songs, lo cal hits, local events, fraternity excellence — all were a part of it, fortunately most of it ephemeral. W e rented a room over Rankin’s store for $30 a year, furnished. I remember the faculty reprimanded the chapter president for the “ extravangance of the chapter.” It has been my good fortunte to keep in close touch with fraternity life through my teaching years. I have watched all of the enlargements and refinements, the gradual but probably inevitable change

________________________

in the sPi r i tQut ” and 1 am ing ag j“ inner sit looking UpQn m y wondersunlight

c tA a n rniTTTFR ST NtLfF vY COUL1H.K

spruces whether, after all, those of us of the older and simpler days did not find in the fraternity more that enriched life than do the students of to day. ★ ★ ★

MY BETA DAYS Sam

uel

il s o n ,

Hanover

’7 2

M y Beta days can I forget? T o this I answer, never. H er ties once formed shall never break, For they endure forever. They bear me back to days of youth, Its glamour, and its beauty, W hen I, before the “ Sage of truth,” Sought wisdom for life’s duty, W hen friendship wove her garlands bright, And poured them on our altar, Sweet incense, that will ever rise, O f love, that ne’er can falter. Though I ’ve become a silver gray, M y heart keeps time and measure W ith boys of Beta Theta Pi T o find my highest pleasure. So down the path of life w e’ll go, Close knit in ties fraternal, And proudly wear the badge, my lads, That glows with light eternal.

M Y BETA DAYS Y ou do me honor overmuch in listening to the wiles of Dean Stanle} Coulter, who suggested that you write to me for my Beta memories. For beneath all the honors and distinctions he has won in life, there is the broad and deep foundation of Beta love, which has stood proof against all the attritions of time. You could not have rubbed up against a finer representative of the spirit, which has always characterized Iota chapter than when you drew fire from his anvil in your late correspondence. You might well have let your probing rest there and not have followed the lead suggested in his reference to myself However I will gladly do what I may to v ^ :. assist in your search for the mystery of the Holy Grail of modern Greek frater nity life. For I take it that, as a knight errant of old, you are intent to make this shine forth especially as exemplified in the genius and spirit of Beta Theta P i; to so grip and thrill your own soul that as the leader of our beloved fraternity you may inspire our younger brothers with undying devotion, as you meet their representatives in annual assembly. A s now in 1928 I look back over fiftynine years since my initiation, my remembrance of detail, is rather hazy. The chapter was very small, just recuflo S S N H flB perating like the college from the ravages of the Civil W ar. Tom Thornton and J. Marsh Thompson having been initiated at Miami, carried the fire from Alpha’s altar and kindled it anew, to glow with __ , renewed vigor on Iota’s. Thompson was „ a grandson of Dr. Finley Crowe, the R E V . S. N. W IL S O N founder of the college. He had known me as a boy, in his father’s pastorate at Lebanon, Indiana, and early in my freshman year, 1868, I was honored with an invitation to become a member of the chapter. Dr. Crowe himself so appreciated the genius and worth of the fra ternity that before his death at Hanover in i860, while yet actively indentified with the college work, he felt it a privilege and honor to be initiated and enrolled a member, thus indicating clearly how splendidly the chapter and fraternity had thrown off the odium attached to it in its days of per secution and trial, the days when Beta Rock was made sacred as the hallowed shrine of the chapter, its place of refuge and security, upon whose time worn crest, the chapter might hold its sessions safe from intrusion and lurking foe. To my mind the impress of that early day of sub rosa struggle has never left the chapter. Like the early church, it emerged from the fur nace heat of trial, stronger, braver, more indomitable in purpose and en deavor to reach and maintain the highest ideals of our order than it could possibly have attained under more commonplace surroundings.

BETA LORE

In this connection let me recount a tradition that comes down to me. In those days before the Civil W ar, there were many students from the South. One of these bore the name of Richmond Kelly Smoot, from Texas, who afterward became a distinguished clergyman of the Southern Presbyterian Church. He had just received his badge, a cherished possession. Conscious at all times of the jealousy and antagonism of those about him, he one night feel asleep, and dreamed that his enemies were gath ering with purpose of taking his pin from him. Determined to keep it he jumped from his bed and seized his treasured insignia and fled across yards and over fences to hide it in the cleft of the rocks that skirted one of the picturesque cas cades near the village. His night robe in the morning bore evidence of his pre cipitate flight. But though he tried again and again to find it, in the niche where he thought he had placed it, he was never able to recover it. The existence of the chapter was at last revealed and its members expelled from college by faculty action. This de cision, however, was later rescinded DR. C R O W E ’S G R A V E when an invitation was given the chapter to enroll as students of the college at Danville, Kentucky. Hanover College is built on bluffs, four hundred feet above the level of the Ohio that sweeps at its front. From the cupola of the college you can see twenty miles down the river, the great ravines, beautiful cascades, and rocks all around. Indeed I think there is no more beautiful and romantic campus to be found in all the land. This must inevitably leave its impress upon the student body, and I am certain none develop a deeper love for its surroundings and cherish more endearing appreciation of their fraternal life there than do the Beta boys of Iota chapter. Free from the enticements and side issues o f a city, or large town (Madison is six miles aw ay), the student was all the more intimately identified with and caused to love his immediate surroundings, and to cherish them in all his after life, leaving a halo of beauty and romance about his college days, that lingered with him always. Again I think that the small number, comparatively, of students in col lege and chapter served to bind the boys of Iota closer together than they otherwise would have been. The intimate and life-long friendships thus formed that centered around their fraternity life, were not to be dissipated by separation and the lapse of time. Another factor that added to the warmth of affiliation in my day, I be lieve, was this. Our chapter units were chosen, not in a specified season of rushing, but all along through the college year. This avoided hasty action or decision on the part of the chapter, and gave time to study character,

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talent, adaptability, and scholarship, such as hasty pledging cannot give. The result was a band of kindred spirits, that could work for and achieve a common goal. I think in my day Iota’s singing ability was vastly increased by the habit, at stated intervals, of open air serenades. A goodly number of the | boys had sweethearts in the village, of whom mine yet journeys by my side as my beloved wife. The word was quietly passed around to the young ladies that on a certain evening they might expect a Beta serenade and, I as an evidence of their appreciation, a door ajar, or an open window would be taken as the way to cake and refreshments. I cannot claim that I profited by this vocal culture, but I did fulfill my part when it came to eating.

TH E BETA ROCK A T H ANOVER

A t an alumni dinner which I attended in Detroit a few years ago I heard a brother say that he had never heard- such singing as the boys of Iota chapter could give, adding, “ I believe they knew by heart every song in the Beta Songbook, and could produce it on call.” So, you see, they are I still true to form. I well remember, fifty-seven years ago, of listening to the reading of a I letter from a former member of our chapter, expressing his love and deep 1 interest in our progress, and offering to give what seemed to me a very generous sum to furnish a hall in which to hold our chapter meetings. This same spirit, multiplied an hundredfold as the years have gone by, has con tributed to the advancement of the fraternity at large, in undertaking enter prises of larger scope, which the silver grays and men of younger years have had an important part in fostering and carrying to a successful issue. To me, one of the most interesting features as I entered the campus of

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.my Alma Mater (Hanover College) on the occasion of the centennial celebration in 1927, was the impression produced by the Beta fraternity house, whose terraced approach was decorated in the national colors in the form of letters in red, white and blue, “ Welcome Hanover,” on a ground of green. The beautiful house to which it led would have been impossible for the Iota chapter but for the timely help of those who had loved it in the past.

A N O L D -T IM E H A N O V E R R E U N IO N G R O U P

★ ★ ★

BETA SINGERS OF LONG AGO On Sunday, December 4, 1927, the Cleveland Plain Dealer published an article by Miss Marie Kirkwood, publicity manager of Western Reserve University, which was headed “ Western Reserve Glee Club of Seventy-seven Years A go.” It was illustrated by a picture of four members of Beta Theta Pi at Hudson in the ’5o’s of the last century and every person named in the story was a Beta. It ran as follow s: “ Seventy-seven years ago the little town of Hudson was just settling down to that brief winter evening, necessitated by the absence of any sort of artificial lighting except tallow candles, when, marching down the brick row which was the main avenue between the houses of professors and the buildings of old Western Reserve University, appeared four odd figures. They were dressed in flowing robes, in the half light like figures from fan tasy, and all four were heavily masked. -'Arriving before the house of President George Edmond Pierce they broke into song:

. s

“Happy are we tonight, boys, Happy, happy are we The hearts that we delight, boys, W ith us shall happy be.

121

BETA SINGERS Tim e may bring us care and pain, And age may make us sad, But happy are we tonight, boys, And all our hearts are glad.”

Over the background of a bass and a baritone there was a honeyed tenor and an even higher voice nearly sweet enough to have been a woman’s. Then, as the shadows deepened, the singers seemed to melt into the darkness and to vanish under the tall trees. Imagine the excitement that was in Hudson next day. Before chapel, in the college atheneum, in the general store, the tavern and the postoffice, nothing was talked about except the masked quartette. Wonderful sere naders, it was agreed, from Cleveland, probably, that busy metropolis up

— Courtesy of Cleveland

P la in D ealer

Rollin Augustus Sawyer, H enry Coe, D wight Sayles., John E. W . Coates

Lake Erie-way, boasting 25,000 population, with a music hall and all sorts of Bohemian followers of the arts. “ And in a week or so the heart of every. Hudson maiden was thrilled when the serenaders came again and sang ‘The Burmah Lover.’ During the winter their surprise visits continued, while they added to their repertory, ‘W e Parted In Silence’ and ‘M y Mother’s Bible.’ “ Then in the early spring a select few were invited to Phi Delta Hall to meet the masked serenaders, and when the unmasking came, there stood four members of the senior class, Rollin Augustus Sawyer, Henry Coe, Dwight Sayles, and John Edmund Coates. The audience danced with joy, gathered round the little group and with them formed the first Western Reserve Glee Club. The first member to be added was Albert Fitch of the class of 1852.

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“ Memories of that long ago winter were renewed yesterday when Sidney S. Wilson, secretary and treasurer of Western Reserve University, received by mail an old daguerreotype of the first glee club quartette as it sang at Commencement in 1851, from Miss Susanne Sawyer, 32 High Street, Mont clair, New Jersey, youngest daughter of the late Rollin Augustus Sawyer. W ith the picture was a letter from Miss Sawyer’s father, who died in 1915, telling of the masked serenaders and the first glee club quartette, written to his daughter years ago : “ ‘One day Coe and I found a hollow tree over the height north of the college and decided to burn it at night, to which festivity we invited Sayles and Coates. I think it was the finest fire I ever made, and as we lay gazing up at the flames shooting up to the stars, somebody sang. “ Hold, boys,” said Coates, who had taught singing, “ let’s sound tones in harmony.” “ ‘Coe’s falsetto alto and Dwight’s tenor Coates had never heard. When we all sounded, Coates sprang to his feet, crying o u t: “ ‘Bojte, I iiever heard such a combination.’ The four voices blended so as to fill him with what he called ‘a new musical ectasy.’ “ Sawyer went on to tell his daughter how the four boys met in his room and sang. When his mother came, in delight, to hear them, they pledged her to secrecy. Their singing delighted them so that at times they moved them selves to tears. “ Then that long winter of the mystery of the masked serenaders, the glorious unmasking in the spring, and the triumph of commencement! “ There is sadness, too, in his quaint story, for he tells how after com mencement the glee club was invited to go on tour, on horseback, to sing at Austinburg and Painesville. But Ed Coates was sick and his place was taken by Albert Fitch. Then ‘Ed passed beyond the stars and the fellow ship fell apart.’ “ In after years Sawyer became famous as a dominie. He was head of Granville Academy and later held fashionable pastorates at Yonkers, New York, and Montclair, New Jersey. He was also nationally known as a lec turer and writer. “ Th6 picture of the old glee club quartette will be framed and preserved among the University’s most cherished relics.”

BETA BARDS OF THE EIGHTIES The cover of The Michigan Alumnus for January 25, 1923, carried a picture which revived many memories of Michigan Betas. Under it were the words, “ Minstrels of 1881. A Quartette Composed of W . T. Whedon, O. F. Hunt, J. H. Grant and D. E. Osborne.” It was Whedon who dug up the old picture for an accompaniment to an article of reminiscences, “ Tra dition and Deviltry.” The singers were all Betas, William Turner Whedon, ’81, Ormond Fremont Hunt, ’81, John Henry Grant, ’82, and Daniel Edward Osborne, ’79, (M .D., ’84). Referring to them Whedon wrote: “ In my library is a hymn book. The outside cover embossed in gilt reads, ‘University of Michigan.’ On the fly leaf in lead pencil is the following: ‘Stolen from the U. of M. Chapel.’ (Yes, I confess to the theft, but I doubt if the book was ever missed.) ‘Cnapel Quartette, W . T. Whedon, first

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tenor; O. F. Hunt (now circuit judge in Detroit), second tenor; J. H. Grant (a former regent), now deceased, first bass; D. E. Osborne (physician at St. Helena, California, and ex-president of California Medical Association), second bass.’ In our college days, we were the Beta Theta Pi quartette, and gave concerts in various cities in Michigan, and assisted at Choral Union Concerts. During my last two years in college, this quartette led the singing at Chapel, and as a remuneration our fees were remitted. The fly leaf of the hymn book also says, ‘Prexy’s favorite hymn, page 27/ The hymn is ‘Lord How Mysterious are T h y W ays/ and I often wondered when we sang it if our beloved P rexy Angell did not really feel that this line applied to his refractory students as well as to the Lord.” The “ plug” hats were worn by most college students of the early eighties, when they had attained the dignity of juniors or seniors. The side whiskers

M IC H IG A N B E T A Q U A R T E T T E , 1881

were popular also, sometimes called sideburns or burnsides, sometimes sim ply, siders. In the presidential campaigns of 1880 and 1884 the “ plugs” were worn everywhere by political enthusiasts. Commenting on the pictures, Junius E. Beal w rote: “ I have had a lot of letters about them. Judge Hunt wrote that the fellows at his round table at the Detroit Club greeted him with a cheer, one of them waving the picture on high in ghoulish glee. He thought he had lived it down. I wore one of those white plugs in 1881 and, a few years afterwards, when there was a big fire in ‘the thumb’ of our state, our folks were sending up boxes of clothing, so I put in my plug hat. The man distributing the stuff said he saw a farmer out plowing with that hat on the back of his head. That type of Beta was an unusually progressive and aggressive one, as it had to be to rebuild the chapter in opposition to the strong rivals here. The aggressive part is shown in John Grant’s chin (middle man with light ‘plug’ and heavy mustache). That enabled us to take any one we wanted right away from any of the others because ‘we had to have them.’ ” It is an interesting fact that, in later years, Grant and Beal, both ’82 men, served together on the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan.

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SEAMAN AND THE SONGS The convention of 1870 directed the Denison chapter to compile and publish a songbook for the fraternity. The chapter was not two years old when it received this commission. It had on its roll not over a dozen names, and several of those represented members who had graduated in 1868 and in 1869. The Betas in Granville made a good group, and it is no injustice to any of the rest of them to say that, so far as fraternity en thusiasm was concerned, they were led and dominated by Charles J. Seaman, of the class of 1871.

C H A R L E S J. S E A M A N Denison ’71

He had attended two conventions during the two years he had been a Beta. He had caught the vision. He had had one term’s residence at Brown University, where, under the custom of dual membership, then common, he had joined another fraternity, largely to find out how it differed from £eta Theta Pi. A t Brown college and fraternity songs played quite an important part in college life. He was aggressive and earnest, sometimes over-enthusi astic when caution might have been suggested by the more prudent and

mFOR THE I. CHAPTER OF THE B. 9. II. ASSOCIATION; BENEDICTION.

O PE N IN G O D E.

Hail noble band o f youthful men. W ho form the mystic tie, T h e Secret Order numb’ring ten, O f B eta , T heta, P i !

L e t “ Nature's sweet restorer sleep,” Soon wrap us in her strong embrace, And guardian Angels, vigils keep— And wilt Thou shield us, God o f Grace T

On common ground to-night we m tet. L e t jo y light every e y e ; W ith song o f cheer, let each on e greet His B eta, T h eta, Pi»

INITIATORY ODE TO THE CHAPTER. H

At Friendship’s pure, and holy shrine L e t all dissensions die. And mutual confidence entwine Our B eta, Theta, Pi. In « Friendship H all," 'mid social glec,t L e i dlT with trust rely, And join each heart in hnrmony W ith B eta, T heta, Pi. . L e t Virtue, T ru th, and M erit utand W ith us escutcheoned high Upon the shield which guards our band. O f B eta, Theta, Pi. L e t invocations here find birth— Perchance they’ll reach the sky, Sv5g And blessings soon may shower d«wn On B eta, T heta, Pi. tffiK cJgK ftS g sf§£s

L et order sit enthroned to-night, A s order reigns on high, And each renew his sacred plight T o Beta, Theta Pi.

CLOSING ODE.

Brothers, again we’ve met to lake the pledge, W here hearts to kindred hearts rep ly; L e t “ Friendship and Fidelity,” inhedge O ur sacred B eta, Theta, Pi. H ere oft we congregate with trusting hearts. Affection strong’, a n a Friendship nigh; L e t each, and all, a ct well their difPrent parts. Thus honor B eta, T h eta. P i. Once more upon our Order's lenih’ning chfcin. Another link, this bight we tie ; L et time, nor distance, rend in th'ain One heart from B eta, T h eta, Pi.

•

And now, when each renews his sacred pledge. L et heart and hand with jo y comply, L et Friendship shield from ill, our little band O f noble Betit, T heta, Pi. W hile each, in order, gives his willing hand. Let never Friendship once deny The slightest tribute at the open shrine. O f hallow’d Beta, Theta, Pi. And last of all, let sweetest concord reign Round Friendship’s altar, pure and high, u W ith all who wear the badge, or benr the name,” W hich ’tokens B eta, Theta, Pi.

the

n it ia t e d

Come, let each B eta join his voice. And bid our Lodge good b y e ; W hile, from its courts, act out through choice Our B eta, T heta, Pi.

Stranger, here oft we’ve met, a little band, T o cultivate each friendly tie; T o j ou, we now extend the cordial hand. W hich shields our B eta, T heta, Pi.

W hen e’er we mingle with the world, L et actions show our die ; Like pennant to the breeze unfurled. O f B eta, T heta, Pi.

W e greet thee, as a B rother, in. its pale. In noble actions let us vie, W ith words o f kindness let us ever hail Our worthy B eta, T h eta, Pi.

W e f l R wouldJeave our “ Friendship Hall.” And speak so soon good-bye; But time and couqh to each doth call. “ Vale, -Beta, Theta, PL”

T o Friendship’s noble call, when brother speaks, Return a kind and prompt reply, Y es, give the pass, or watchword which he seeks, And with it, B eta , T h eta, Pi.

Hail all o f high and low degree. W ho form the mystic t i e ; Farew ell to each, farewell to thee. M y B eta, Theta, Pi.

And now accept this humble tribune, doe. From brothers o f the m ystic tiq; W e trust you— O I prove ever true. T o us— to B e ta , T h eta, Pi.

The above is a photographic reproduction of the first collection of Beta Songs, used as early as 1847 by the Wabash Chapter.

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conservative. In other words, he was the type of fraternity man who does something because of love for his fraternity. A good many hundred Betas have loved Beta Theta Pi; but a chapter containing a large number of active members rarely has more than three or four who rush ahead arid work for the fraternity in all sorts of ways, while the rest are studying their lessons or are engaged in the routine affairs of college life. Seaman belonged in the small group of workers. Seaman had no special qualifications for a songbook editor. He had no knowledge of musical notes. He used to say that he had some musical friend tell him the names of the tunes, and then, by keeping “ Bonny Blue Flag” in one hand and “ Lauriger Horatius” in the other, he was able to keep the tunes from getting mixed. But, without skill as a musician, he had energy and determination and, having been made songbook editor, he was bound to edit a songbook. He went to work at once, pressing helpers into the service through his persuasive personality, and by his own individual efforts secured the promise of several songs, which have become famous in the fraternity. He even wrote two songs himself, his “ W e are Singing Again in the Dear Old Hall” and “ Brightly Through the Summer Night” being familiar wherever Betas gather around the piano. He appealed to his chaptermates for help, and they wrote several songs, two of which, the “ Beta Doxology” and “ Gemma Nostra,” were furnished by Joseph S. Tunison, who, even then, had a reputation for thorough scholarship which enabled him to write in Latin as freely as in English. Songs will be popular for a day and will pass from memory; but it is difficult to imagine a time when Betas will have forgotten “ Salve! Beta Theta Pi T u regina pura; Cara tu meo cordi, Cara, cara, cura

sung as it is to a famous college air, and expressing as it does the deep heart-feelings of the true Beta. There were three things which made this songbook a great success. It was the first published by the general fraternity, the only previous one being a single chapter’s enterprise; it was dominated by fraternity thought— the things dear to the heart of the “ Greek” finding expression in song; and it utilized the tunes made familiar North and South by the Civil War, whose echoes had hardly died away.

TH E FIRST BETA SONGBOOK [In July, 1903, two years before his death, William H. Gaylord, Western Reserve ’64, presented to the Put-in-Bay Convention of Beta Theta Pi, a fac simile of the first songbook of the fraternity which was prepared by the Western Reserve chapter. To accompany it he wrote out the following reminiscences.] It would be impossible in the proscribed limits of a preface to give Betas of the present generation an adequate or even rudimentary picture of Beta life and surroundings up to the close of the W ar of 1861. Life in all its phases was then, by necessity, so much simpler and so much more strenuous than today.

TH E FIRST BETA SONGBOOK

I27

In the West— just emerging from pioneer life— money was “ far to seek and hard to get.” A ll were inured to toil— unused to luxuries. To send a son to college meant constant industry, often severe self-denial to the parent. The fond parent’s allowance to his hopeful son was gauged by his actual necessaries in college, or at best limited to the demands of the most modest economy. To swell even a little wee corner of the wallet with “ spending money” for unnamed, unaccounted and, by the same token, unaccountable “ sundries,” would have been deemed wasteful and ridiculous excess. Fraternity life and surroundings were thus greatly restricted by en forced economy. Chapter houses were not only unknown, but inconceivable. The exchequer did not always warrant a permanent “ frat” room. The early records of Beta chapter reveal our primitive brothers as a peripatetic

T H E OLD C A M PU S O F W E ST E R N R E SE R V E CO LLEG E A T H U D SO N

race— nearly allied to perpetual motion machines— displaying such marvelous energy and persistency in hunting out nooks, corners, groves (wherever they could celebrate their mystic rites), that in comparison the historical Wandering Jew would be a trifling laggard and lousy loiterer. Betas were then living under the dispensations and teachings of the old man eloquent and beautiful— he of the long-flowing white beard, so artisti cally pictured in the frontispiece of the old catalogue just as he is conducting the aspiring youth, the novitiate, up the three steps of the rotunda of the temple, and directing his wandering eyes to gaze through the vaulted roof to the brightest and holiest spot in the whole overarching heavens, where, amid the eternal stars, shine the glorious and immortal galaxy of Beta Theta Pi. Our grip was other than the one we use today— the Beta pin larger and less ornamental. Y et all must honor the unpretentious original badge, because it was the genesis from which has been developed the most ex quisite, graceful, emblematical pin which ever decorated a Greek.

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The new dispensation, which opened the old heavens, revealed the beatitudes of Wooglin, slipped Wooglin’s bob-tailed canine from its leash, unloosed from its lair the fierce dragon which guards our treasures— all these were reserved for a later generation than ours. I hope soon the com plete history of Beta will be written, and the fraternity will then learn of the struggles and triumphs, the virtues and noble deeds of some of the truest Betas which were ever enrolled on its scroll; also a little bit of inter esting esoteric history, by which in pristine days we supplemented the chill penury of our purses in providing equipment by installing ourselves as gratuitous bailees of worthy tradesmen or farmers who might wish to have personal property secreted from the tax-gatherer. I might epitomize the crowning characteristics of early Betas as three: He must have a dollar in his pocket to pay his way, must have a clean shirt for the meeting night, and must always be a clubable fellow. The history of Beta chapter has three distinct epochs, viz., a birth and two reincarnations. Our fraternity was founded at Miami University, O x ford, Butler County, Ohio, August 8, 1839. Miami chapter was Alpha. April 8, 1840, Hamilton, Gordon and Paddock, of Miami, founded Beta, or Cincinnati chapter, at Cincinnati, Hamilton County. August 26, 1841, Louis P. Harvey, of Cincinnati chapter, founded Gamma, or Hudson chapter, at Western Reserve College, Hudson, Summit County, Ohio. A t a special convention of the fraternity, May, 1847, Cincinnati chapter was declared defunct, and its membership transferred to Miami, or Alpha chapter. Hud son, or Gamma chapter, then became Beta chapter. The record shows that September 27, 1853, the chapter held its last meeting. A t this date Western Reserve College was in the throes of a terrible dissension among its faculty and trustees, which almost closed its doors and reduced the number of its students to a mere corporal’s guard. January 12, 1857, Beta chapter was revived by Brothers Wolcott, Newton, and Wright. It is a pleasure to note that the first name of new members was Charles A. Young, of Dartmouth College, then professor of mathe matics at Western Reserve, now of Princeton College, and the most eminent living authority on the sun. The fraternity never had a more devoted and zealous member. Often he attended our regular meetings, our initiations always, and was never absent from our annuals. A t the close of our service in 1862, when Beta had no hall, he established us in his recitation room. W ith President Hitchcock— also a Beta— he secured for Beta a permanent home in South College. He wrote for Beta a song, which I am unable to identify. In 1868 Beta again became extinct. It was revived in 1881, just before Western Reserve College had been removed to Cleveland, Ohio, and became Adelbert College of Western Reserve University. Under this rejuvenation it entered on the prosperous career of today, which is a certain guarantee that its flag will never again be lowered, but will wave triumphantly o er all rivals at Adelbert while time’s wheels run. Prior to i860 men’s minds had become greatly heated over the burning questions which divided North and South. When the war cloud burst in 1861 many Eastern colleges had surrendered their charters because the W est refused to renounce the Southern chapters. The West stood firmly on the fundamental principle of our order— that once a Beta always a

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Beta, and that Beta brotherhood was too broad to be circumscribed by geographical lines. Prior to i860 Beta Theta Pi was very largely, almost exclusively, Western and Southern. Those were strenuous times from 1861 to the close of the war. Soon communications with our Southern chapters were sadly interrupted, and about 1862 finally ceased. The boys of Beta had an opportunity for communication with our Southern brothers vouchsafed to no other chapter, at least to such an extent. In May, 1862, Western Reserve closed its doors, and we all en listed in the army for three months’ service. Our company was Company B, Eighty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. W e marched under the captaincy of that devoted brother, Charles A. Young, above mentioned. W e were as signed the duty of guarding the Confederate prison at Camp Chase, Co lumbus, Ohio. In the room where we changed guard was a window, to which prisoners could come when especial or pressing necessity demanded a communication with the officer of the guard. Soon the fact became known that among the prisoners were some Beta Theta Pi boys. It became necessary at times to send within the prison for inspection. By some mysterious influence there after the Beta boys of Company B were most frequently assigned as in spectors. I, myself, met many brothers there. One, I remember, was a brother or half brother of General Morgan, the raider. In August our company was ordered to proceed with the prisoners to Cairo, Illinois. Here we gathered all the Confederates from the Ohio and Western prisons who were to be exchanged. W ith these we sailed under flag of truce to the mouth of the Yazoo River, Mississippi, and there discharged them. There were six or seven large transports. Ours was the steamer 6'. B. Champion. W e had on board about six hundred prisoners. I f this should meet the eye of any Beta who was among them, he will recall many a loving interview with the Beta boys of Company B— who were their guard. This was an exceptional, greatly valued, and carefully cultivated opportunity for com munication with our Southern brothers. Otherwise we were totally cut off in the years from 1861 to 1865. The war thus crippled the growth of the fraternity and the cementing of the bonds among brethren during those years. October 23, i860, Gardner Brooks and myself were initiated into Beta chapter. M ay 1, 1861, Brother Williamson became a Beta, and on Novem ber 4, 1862, Brother Wilbor. The only approach to a printed collection of songs was a large card, of which we had several well-worn, well-thumbed copies. Brothers in Beta chapter had written some. Brother John Pierce, on October 23, i860, had written for the chapter an “ Initiation Song.” I think it is the first song in the book, and has often been erroneously assigned to M. L. Brooks, of ’64. Brother John Hitchcock, son of the president, who was killed at Stone River, December 31, 1862, on January 10, 1861, favored us with a song of his own composition, and on M ay 29, 1862, Brother Charles A. Young, professor of mathematics, another. W e had in manuscript some other songs, sent by different chapters. Beta chapter had, in the fall of 1863, some sweet singers and poetic spirits. When some of the brothers were silent and only beat time, Beta’s hall often rang with the most angelic rhapsody of song. W e felt that

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some effort should be made to put in permanent form all the scattered leaves of song in the different chapters, and opened correspondence with them to this end. The responses were tardy, some discouraging, or at least indifferent, and some sealed their dissent by silence. But Beta chapter’s

Air— jg A n n i e L a t j b i e . ”

I. The .heart is ne’er so joyous, Is ne’er so fall of glee, As when kindred hearts are round.it, And all their joy8 are free: And no hearts are more free, And none have closer tie, Than the true hearts round the altar Gf Beta Theta Pi. ii. When pleasures flow around us, I ask no friend more dear, And when soul is pressed with sorrow, I ask no friend more near, No bosom friend more near, No truer smile nor sigh, Than from true hearts round the altar Of Beta Theta Pi. h i

The world were dark and cheerless,, If ’twere not for the heart, And the heart is cold and lonely, If other love dep art: If sympathy depart, Then blessed is the tie Of true hearts round the altar Of Beta Theta Pi. (23) F a c s im il ie

of a

P age

of th e

F ir s t B e t a S o n g B o o k

enthusiasm for a songbook had. reached such a dangerous tension that, un less it should be realized by a fait accompli, there would be one of the most terrific cloudbursts on record, with its terrible accompaniment of loss of life and destruction of property. So, undismayed by poverty, undaunted by the “ innocuous desuetude” of brother chapters, we resolved that we would not only edit but write a songbook. I transcribe from the records:

TH E FIRST BETA SONGBOOK

Beta Hall, November 3, 1863 “ This evening each of the brothers was to hand in an original [italics mine] song, and more than half our members did so. The songs werq sung. A ballot was then taken to decide what songs composed by brothers should be published. The whole number handed in (five) were selected.”

The brothers crowned with the laurel wreath on that auspicious occasion w ere: Brother Williamson, author of “ Our Founders” ; Brother Gardner, author of “ Spotless Name for A ye” ; Brother Brooks, author of “ Beta’s Emblems” ; Brother Wilbor (I regret to say I cannot identify his song); Brother Gaylord, author of “ Let Us Be Happy Tonight.” A s I look at the product of my “ divine afflatus” after a lapse of forty years and try to hum it, I recall that in my over-vaulting ambition I also invented the tune to accompany the words. I had a most severe desire that whatever fate befell the other songs, mine should never become common place, and I tried to preserve its immortality by setting the music to the capacity of only the most expert musicians and fitting the tones only to singers of widest compass of voice— high C or thereabouts. Hence I intro duced some marvelous trills and staccato lines, to the imminent peril of the feet in the verse, yet productive of some insinuosities in meter which would not slide harmoniously in any Commonplace gamut of song. Alas for the irony of fate. Some ambitious (or was it some pitying brother) in an early songbook, re-edited my song, resetting its club feet, straightening out its trills to the level of some plain song which the delicate original indig nantly spurned. But even thus reshod and resoled it would not float and its leaden feet drew it down into dark obscurity, where it peacefully rests in the glorious hope that at the beginning of the next century when some ambitious archaeologist is seeking for records of the songs which inspired the Betas at this gray dawn of the twentieth century, this song shall rise again and be cherished as an all-sufficient earthly inspiration, closely ap proaching the divine, for Betas forever. W ith the songs written, arose an itching desire for print, excessively virulent on the part of the song writers. Unlike the Roman Sybil who burned a portion of her leaves on each refusal, we now approached the chapters with full garners and desired their co-operation in the publication. W e even took the matter before the Convention. But all were indifferent. Don’t blame them or get an gry; only sincerely pity them that the good Lord had endowed them with such moderate capacity that they could not rise to the appreciation of these immortal epics. W e five song-writers, with tearful objuration, swore that they must be published and attested our determination by a dire threat to print them our selves and go out and steal the money to pay for it. To spare our parents from the disgrace of bringing forth thieves, and Beta from ill reputation of harboring them, the chapter graciously resolved to take upon itself the responsibility of publishing. That the work might have the charm to literati of being a limited edition and yet ample for needs of the present and future members, the edition was set at two hundred copies. To prevent possible exhaustion of stock, a prohibitive price was placed on the book of ten cents per copy, no wholesale rates, no copies to be donated to authors. (Tough on us, wasn’t it?) Sales were made in the Beta chapter. The ledger account bears no testimony of any sales outside. Looks as though the fraternity neither

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wanted to edit or buy. There is a record of a donation of ten copies to Lambda chapter, possibly as a silent rebuke for its indifference to our enterprise, but perhaps the rebuke even would have been stifled if Brooks at this time had not been very sweet on a sister of a brother in Lambda.

NAM ES.

R E SID E N C E S.

H e n r y H. C o b ,

Z>A-

D w i g h t S a y l e s ,*

1. A .

J . E d w a r d W. C o a t s ,* A . W. K n o w l t o n , t . £ D w i g h t J. G i l b e r t ,

i.,A . X .,A .

a .y .,M .

Painesville, 0. Tallmadge, 0 . Royalton, 0 . BrecTcsville, 0 . a. y.

Chicago, I I I . r . , M . Tallmadge%0 . E l iz d r W olcott, L e w i s VV F o r d , 0 M Cleveland, 0 . AL3X, D. STOWELL* r. £. X. %M . New York City. D a v id F itch, i l l New York City. A l a n s o n C a r r o l l , t £ .X .,S . Charleston, I I I . c.,Z . H e n r y M. N e w t On , Nonoalk, 0 .

J a m e s H. P a y n e ,

0. v. 1. G e o r g e P. K o b e r t s , iO ls t

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Morrison, I I I . Detroit, Mich.

F ire t L ieu ten an t, 2d Michigan B attery.

B enjamin Walter,

a .y .,T

a. y.

Spencertoivn, N. Y. E dw in C h ild s, t e . x . ' T . Jonesville , ‘Mich. Denver City, C. T. W m. H e n r i P i e r c e , J o h n F . H i t c h c o c k ,* a . , T . Hudson, 0. E d w a r d L. R o c k w e l l * ;| | | Youngstown, 0 . v . , T. Cleveland, 0. M. G. W a t t e r s o n , L e w i s H. D e l a n o , '4&M ' Cuyahoga Falls , 0 . d.,T. Hudson, 0. C h a r l e s A. Y o u n g , W. W. C l a r k ,

r. e .X t .T .

Professor M athem atics W. R. College.

H e n r y V. H i t c h c o c k ,

■ffiM Hudson, 0. (7)

F a c s i m i l e o f a P a g e o f t h e C a t a l o g u e o f B e t a C h a p t e r o f 1865

Such is the simple history o f this little songbook, very imperfect and hastily written, not far so good as I could have furnished if I had written it at so, much per agate line, but the best I have to offer at this time to a free educational bureau. And now Williamson, Gardner, Brooks, and Wilbor have joined the invisible choir and are warbling the perfect hymns in Woog-

HR TH E FIRST BETA SONGBOOK

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lin’s halls with the immortal brothers who have gone before. I alone remain to continue the hoarse strain here below. It would seem natural that I should recount their lives. This must be done and can only be adequately done in the history of the chapter. There is so much to tell— worth telling— so many reflections from the luster of their lives which would ennoble ours— some other and readier pen than mine should make the record. I dare not trust my own. If I should represent them as I knew them it would seem to a stranger exaggeration. If I could not reproduce their virtues and noble characters before you as I knew them, I would do violence to my feelings. A ll died in their prime, yet having attained positions in life and crowded . their lives with triumphs far beyond the measure of their years. My chum, H Williamson, died early this year. Entering on the practice of his profession j| in the fall of 1866, he early attained high rank at the bar. Within a decade H| he was called to the bench of Cuyahoga County, from which he resigned to II accept the position of counsel for the Nickel Plate Railroad, and died at the early age of fifty-eight as general counsel for the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad and all the allied Vanderbilt lines. He was at the time of his death trustee of Western Reserve University and trustee j of Case School of Applied Science at Cleveland, trustee of the vast Gordon estate, and was confidential adviser and trusted counselor of a vast number of large financial and benevolent institutions. Gardner was the winner in our time of all prizes in composition and oratory. A t the early age of eighteen he molded two plaques of the vener able Doctors Aiken and Goodrich, of the Old Stone Church, Cleveland, which have never been surpassed in life-like likenesses. B y nature and design an author, poet, and artist, by accident he entered the Presbyterian ministry. Under strenuous work at his first charge in the far W est his naturally robust constitution received a shock from which he never re covered. He struggled on with earnest devotion, and at the early age of fifty-six “ rested from his labors while his works do follow him.” Brooks, the Beau Brummel of our class, the mirth maker, the perfect amateur minstrel, the ready writer of witty songs and tuneful verse, when once enlisted in his chosen profession of medicine and surgery, became so engrossed with the exacting duties of his large practice that he sank down exhausted at the age of fifty-two. Dear Philo Wilbor, two years our junior in college, but our constant companion and seatmate at table, with a body delicate as a woman’s— a cripple from birth— which sustained one of the brightest of minds, one of the tenderest of hearts, one of the most generous of souls, endowed by the Muse with most extraordinary gifts of poetry, music, and art. “W hen nature was shaping him, clay was not granted For making so full-sized a man as she wanted. So, to fill out the model, a little she spared From some finer grained stuff for a women prepared; And she could not have hit out a more excellent plan, For making him fully and perfectly man. And while she was kneading and shaping the clay She sang to her work in her sweet childish way, And found when she’d put the last touch to his soul That her music had somehow got mixed with the whole.”

It is one of the unsolved riddles of the universe why Nature having

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endowed men with rare gifts of mind, has not also dowried them with physical powers to sustain them. Wilbor rose to a high position of trust in the banking business in Chicago, but at an age earlier than all of us the feeble body sank exhausted under the strain of his brilliant mind and the strong pulsations of his mighty heart. “ Should any born of kindlier birth A sk what loved one lies below, Say only this: A tender flower, W hich tried to blossom in the snow, Lies buried where the violets blow.”

A s I sit and g a ze , on the faces of these four dearest friends of my youth as they appeared in happy, happy college days, such a flood of precious memories crowd upon my mind, and such a host of tender emo tions fill my breast, that I can only dimly see the page through my blinding tears. I can write no more. “A gain ye come, ye hovering fo rm s! I find ye, A s early to my clouded sight ye shone! Shall I attempt, this once, to seize and bind ye? Still o’er my heart is that illusion thrown? Y e crowd more n e a r! Then, be the reign assigned ye, And sway me from your misty, shadowy zon e! M y bosom thrills, with youthful passion shaken, From magic airs that round your march awaken.” O f joyous days ye bring the blissful vision; The dear, fam iliar phantoms rise again, And, like an old and half-extinct tradition, First love returns, with Friendship in his train. Renewed is P a in : with mournful repetition L ife tracks his devious labyrinthine chain. And grasps me now a long un-wonted yearning F or that serene and solemn Spirit Land; I thrill and trem ble; tear on tear is burning, And the stern heart is tenderly unmanned. W hat I possess, I see far distant lying, And what I lost, grows real and undying.

This little brochure is not published because it contains any literary merits or artistic features, but to place in your hands a facsimile of the first Beta Songbook, printed, as it is believed, prior to 1870. Many Beta songs had been written; some existed in written manuscript only, and were sent from chapter to chapter. In Beta we used also a large card, on which some songs were printed. A t the convention in 1870 Brother C. J. Seaman, of Alpha Eta, was appointed to arrange all the material then on hand and issue it in a Beta Theta Pi Songbook. W ith a skill, energy, and devotion worthy of the author of “ The Alumni’s Return,” he set about this labor of love, and compiled and edited an extensive songbook, containing not only the material entrusted to him, but much new and original matter and tunes. Brother Seaman, in his untiring energy, sought church choirs, haunted music halls, and visited minstrel performances, in search of tuneful strains, and then sought out Betas to write words. On one such quest he struck on the old Negro melody “ Carve That ’Possum.” He summoned Brother John I. Covington, Miami ’70, at the next convention, tp write words for the tune. Brother Covington retired to some secret place, where

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he might commune alone, went down into himself for four or five hours, and returned with hair erect, bearing aloft that rollicking song “ Carve That Canine.” Brother Seaman at one time dumped all his impedimenta on the study table of Brother D. H. Moore, D.D., Ohio ’60, then a pastor at Columbus, since Bishop to China, with a request for tunes for each set of words. Within a week came a complete setting of the most tuneful melodies to all the songs. Just this to show how much of interesting incident and novel circumstances most worthy of preservation is connected with the original of Beta songs. Brother Seaman’s original book is still preserved. Many subsequent editions followed, but changed. Old songs were dropped and new ones inserted. Many errors crept in— incorrectly assigning dates and authors. Many songs remain today in manuscript. Allow me to earnestly entreat the fraternity to at once secure a com plete set of every known published Beta Theta Pi songbook, to zealously and devotedly gather all written and unpublished songs, disjecta membra exposed, a prey to the gnawing tooth of time; to rescue from father to son tradition the history of its songs and the life of its song writers; to recover, as far as possible, every lost chord which has resounded in Beta’s halls, and to preserve in some permanent volume for Beta’s sons the com plete symphony which has ever inspired Beta’s sires. Forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit.

A N O L D E N T IM E IN D IA N A C H A P T E R G R O U P

Chapter V I I — “ The Boys o f ’ 39”

JOHN REILY KNOX John Reily Knox, everywhere honored among Betas as “ Pater Knox,” was born M ay 20, 1820, in a house still standing on the Venice pike, between Venice and Millville in Millville Township, Butler County, Ohio. It was a log house but at a later time was boarded over. “ Pater K nox” was the son of John Knox, an emigrant from Ireland, a Scotch-Irishman, and a widow by the name of Wilson whom he married. She was from the South origi nally, riding to Ohio on a pillion behind her first husband. “ Pater K nox” married Isabel Briggs, whose mother came from New England to Ohio in the same way. So pioneer stock from New England and the South met in the K nox family in Butler County, as they did in the case of many other families which settled in that part of Ohio. John Reily, whose name he bore, was a Pennsylvanian by birth who cast his fortunes with those of the new State of Ohio. He was a member of its first constitutional convention. A Revolutionary soldier, he opened a school in Columbia, near Cincinnati, in June, 1790. A few years later he moved over into Butler County, called by many “the garden of Ohio,” and named for George Richard Butler, a Revolutionary W ar soldier, who fell in the bat tle with Indians where General Arthur St. Clair was so badly defeated. In Butler County Mr. Reily became clerk of court, serving in that capacity from 1803 to 1840, and also serving as clerk of the Supreme Court from 1803 to 1842. For eight years he was recorder of the new county, from 1803 to 1811. He was a trustee of Miami University from 1809 to 1840 and was secretary of the board of trustees for many years. In college “ Pater K nox” was a recognized leader. He stood high in scholarship and, after the custom of those days, he found opportunity for further intellectual training in the meetings of one of the literary societies. He was noted as an orator, this reputation following him as an alumnus, so that he was much sought after as a speaker on important anniversaries at Miami. In the spring of 1839, he was secretary of the Union Literary Society and became a candidate for its presidency. A fter a lively campaign he was elected. It was during this sharp fight that his thoughts were turned to the organization of a new fraternity as a rival to the existent Alpha Delta Phi. A fter his graduation he spent some time in uncertainty regarding a lo cation. His classmate and co-founder of our fraternity, Michael C. Ryan, wrote him several letters urging strongly the advantages for a young lawyer to be offered by Hamilton, the county seat of his native county. Founder David Linton wrote him of the desirability of attending the Cincinnati Law School where he, himself, was registered. Willis O. Robb tells this story, in an article on “ Old Time Betas,” published in the Beta Theta P i for Feb ruary, 1906: “ During its later years the life' of our founder, John Reily Knox, seems as nearly regular, well-ordered, and in accordance with long chgrished plans as any life could be. A s you know, he lived in a quiet county-sea& town in western Ohio, a leader of the local bar, a vestryman o f his parish churdh, a trustee o f his Alma

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Mater, a quiet, kindly, home-keeping man, though with a sense o f humor and a breadth o f human interest that kept him fresh and sweet always. But, as an illus tration of the hap-hazard way in which careers and locations were chosen in his younger days, Mr. K n o x once told me this story. H e taught school (in Tennessee I think it was) for a while after his graduation, and, when his term was finished, he set out with his wages in his pocket fo r the nearest steamboat landing on the M is sissippi River, which was a woodyard. A rriving there, he lay down to await the coming o f the first steamboat, having made up his mind, if it came from the north, to go to N ew Orleans on it, and, if it came from the other direction, to go back to Ohio, via Cincinnati. It was a north-bound boat that came first, and our founder

spent the rest of his life in Ohio. H ow different his career would have been if chance had taken him, instead, to N ew Orleans, twenty years before the Civil W ar, we can only guess.”

The southern influence in Miami was strong “ before the war.” Twelve members of ’39 were Southerners, ten of ’40 and ten of ’4.2, or forty-two out of a total of 112 graduates of those years. Quite a number of others went south after graduation. O f the founders of the fraternity, Gordon was born in Georgia and Hardin and Duncan in Kentucky. The Southern element in K nox’s own blood already has been mentioned. There was another factor

BETA LORE

*3 &

in the decision of a place for a career. The letters written him by other founders pay considerable attention to a young woman in whom Knox was greatly interested. She wanted him to settle down in Greenville, according to statements by his descendants, and was strongly averse to leaving her home there in the county seat of Darke County. But, whatever the reason, he spent the most of his life in Greenville. For more than fifty years he was a lawyer there. He was a prime mover in and a liberal donor to the Greenville Law Library Association, was its first president, and for nine years immediately preceding his death was presi dent of the Darke County Bar Association. He was a member and vestry man of St. Paul’s Protestant Episcopal Church. In November, 1845, he married Isabel S. Briggs. They had four chil dren, two of whom survived him, a son, Harry a commander in the United States Navy and a teacher in the United States Naval Academy, and a daughter, Elizabeth, w ife of James M. Lansdowne, cashier of the Farm ers’ National Bank of Greenville, and mother of Brothers John Knox Lansdowne and Harry Moreton Lansdowne of the Miami chapter, the latter initiated on a Saturday night before his grandfather’s sudden death. It was another brother, Zachary Lansdowne, not a Beta, who was commander of the ill-fated United States dirigible air ship Shenandoah, in whose wreck he lost his life. While studying law, he had a great reputation as a speaker and was much in demand during the exciting Harrison campaign of 1840, in which many of the southwestern Ohio people changed their political affiliation. In the campaign of 1856, Mr. Knox took quite an active part. Politi cally he was a W hig; then from the formation of the Republican party he cast his lot with that organization, and was its most influential, consistent, and prominent advocate in his county. Although a consistent Republican in politics, yet he disliked the scramble for office and was but once a Republican Ticket. candidate before his party for nomination. He was elected in i860 one of the presidential electors in Ohio, and as such cast his official ballot to make Abraham Lincoln President of the United States. During the war of the rebellion he supported the ABRAHAM LINCOLN government openly by his public addresses and his •r personal influence in carrying out every effort made HANNIBAL HAMLIN,, or C:. to obtain volunteers or to secure aid and supplies to relieve the sufferings of the soldiers or the wants of their families at home. During the darkest hours he was in' personal correspondence with the governor of Ohio, and by experience and intelligence did much to encourage enlistments, to discourage and thwart the influence of the lawless element that manifested itself in various parts of the county, and to advance the in terest of those societies and organizations that were intended to relieve the wants of the suffering soldier and the destitute at home and abroad. From the governor he received no public recognition for these services; asked for none, but could have re ceived a commission had he so desired. It was the governor’s wish, how ever, that he continue his labors at home. l'O U

FO R

l'K K K I D K N T .

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C fM to r* fo r P r m U w t P resid ent o f tM U a lteJ ftta tet. KKEDER1CK H A 8R A U R E K .o f Hamilton Gnml.v lOSRPH M. ROOT, o f Erie County l i t D jm rw r— B E N JA M IN EO G LEST< *N 24 “ W I L L IAM^ M -,n in <SO N

flth ? lh Mb *h 10th /• llib 12th ISih > 14lh 10tH i 16th J 17th • 18U.------ 1 1 *1 . > tOth 9 diet

JO IIN M K F .i.L l M NELSO N RUSH. ABRAHAM THOMSON JO H N F . H EN K L FIIE 7.E K IA H S. BUN DY D A N IEL Ik S T E W A R T RICHARD I*. L RA B ER JO H N B E A T T Y . ^ W IL L A R D SF-OCL'\l JO S E P H A N K E N Y .' ED W A RD B A LL JO H N A. D A V EN PO R T W IL L IA M K UPHAM. S A M U E L B . PU ILD R ICK O E O R O B W . BRO O KE NORMAN K . M A C KEN ZIE

JOHN R E ILY KNOX

139

The story of the founding of Beta Theta Pi and the connection of Knox with it has been fully told in The Beta Book. He took a lively interest in its welfare. He was a member of the fraternity’s board of directors from 1879 to 1892 and a member of the board of trustees from 1892 to 1897. He was president of the convention of 1890 held at Wooglin-on-Chautauqua. When the golden wedding was celebrated in his home in 1895 one of the most prized presents received was a splendid silver loving cup bearing the insignia of the fraternity, the gift of the chapters, each of which sent a special letter of loving greeting to “ Pater K nox” and his bride of half a century. A t the time of his death there were many similiar letters of affection. O f them Commander Knox wrote to William A. Hamilton, the president of the fraternity: “ M y mother was so touched and comforted in her sudden bereavement by the universal sympathy of the fraternity, of which you are the head, that she hopes you will express, so fa r as you may deem proper, to all the chapters, her appre ciation of their brotherly kindness. Their sympathy has already strengthened her and given her great comfort, and we all feel that it will be a blessed memory for us in the years to come. N ext to the fam ily ties, I know of nothing that gave my father more real pleasure than the association of his old college fraternity, ‘The Beta Theta Pi.’ “ M y father had been more than usually bright and strong and happy this winter, and we had all anticipated fo r him many more happy years of quiet home life with my mother, to whom he was so devoted. About 2:00 p.m. on Monday, the seventh inst., he passed suddenly, instantly from apparent perfect health to death, not a sound or motion, save the fall, indicating the transition.”

A t the funeral, held in the Greenville Methodist Church on February 10, 1898, to accommodate the large company which wished to pay the tribute of respect, there were notable services. During the day before the exercises the body lay in the library of his home, surrounded by many flowers. Among them was a large design of. a Beta Theta Pi badge, sent by the fraternity, a similar but smaller offering from the Wittenberg chapter, a bouquet of Beta rosebuds from the Miami chapter, and a beautifully finished column of flowers from his fellows of the Darke County bar, indicative of a well-rounded career. When the Betas who attended the services went to his late residence to take a last look at the founder of the fraternity they stood about the coffin, silent for a short time, and then it was suggested that the Mystic Circle be formed over the body. In this position the brothers remained for some time, finding a new meaning in the familiar words. “And now let hand grip into hand And eye look into eye, A s breaks the leal and loving band O f Beta Theta Pi.”

A t the cemetery, after the minister had concluded the services and the crowd was withdrawing, again the Mystic Circle was formed, this time around the open grave. The Beta Doxology was sung, and thus the last funeral tribute to his memory was paid by the Betas. The members of the fraternity who attended the funeral were John Knox Lansdowne, Harry Moreton Lansdowne, John Williamson Herron, Paul Maurice Hooven, John Roy Simpson, Pierson Douglas Keys, Clifford Grosselle Grulee, Philip D. Shera, James Russell Griffis, Thomas Brown Christopher and Lee Ora Lantis, all of the Miami chapter; Milton Sayler, Morris Rogers Ebersole, and

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Charles W . Rendigs of the Cincinnati chapter; and Lee Warren MacKinnon and William McDowell Freshour of the Wittenberg chapter. The following notable classic, “ John Reily K nox: The Man and his Monument, ’ was a response to a toast at a banquet given in connection with the Annual Reunion of District II, March i i , 1898. The reunion was held with the Stevens chapter at Hoboken, New Jersey, Brother William Raimond Baird, Stevens ’78, presiding. The toast was enriched by long ac quaintance with “ Pater K nox,” by the fellowship of service with the founder in fraternity administration, and by the strength of the sentimental ties in

PATER KNOX A s he looked in his later years

Beta Theta Pi always emphasized in the life of the speaker, Brother Willis O. Robb, Ohio Wesleyan ’79: “ To the long list of our dead another name has just been added— the name of the first of all the Betas. The dear old founder is no more. And wherever two or three of us are met together it must needs be that his name will come to our lips and his memory to our hearts. Even at our feasts he cannot be forgotten, though it be with a tender cheerfulness rather than with mourning that we dwell upon his loss.” “ For almost sixty years the name and the presence of John Reily Knox

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have been among the treasured possesions of this fraternity. The name remains, enshrined alike in our records and our remembrances forever. The presence we shall know no more. The ‘good gray head that all men knew/ the shy but hearty greeting, the modest, courteous bearing, the quiet glance, the hand upon one’s shoulder— these are gone; and in their place there re mains the fragrance of a good man’s memory. For of such as he it was w ritten: ‘Only the actions of the just Smell sweet and blossom in the dust.’

“ If a great college fraternity could- have had the choosing of its own founder; if it could order beforehand his character, his attributes, his manner of living and his time of dying I am not sure it could possibly choose more wisely for itself than Providence chose for Beta Theta Pi when it gave us for our founder the simple country lawyer who died last month in western Ohio. A scholar, a gentleman, a Christian, a pure-minded and tender-hearted man, the leader of his local bar, a vestryman of his parish church, foremost in all public enterprises, respected throughout the region where he lived, he lacked not the blessings of health, and long life, and domestic happiness. “ Simple and strong, serene and sincere— what finer or healthier type of character could one choose for himself, or hope to find in a friend or father? What manner of public renown shall we prefer to this quiet, studious, highminded career, with its peace, its sanity, its sweet serenity? What prizes of fortune or dreams of ambition may outweigh the fruits of such a life, sound to the core, slow-ripening in the sun? What more beneficent in fluence could be exerted over men than that which such a spirit must exert over those who, like ourselves, have lived in its presence ? “ Fortunate in his temperament, fortunate in his life, he is— we dare to say it— fortunate beyond most men in his monument. You have been wont to contemplate this fraternity of ours in many lights, oftenest perhaps as the cradle and nurse of generous youth, the mother of proud and loyal sons. Consider it now in another aspect, as its founder’s monument. Could a plain, true man devise for himself any other memorial so expressive, so abiding, so perfect? What form of earthly immortality should one choose rather than that which, all unwitting, John Reily Knox secured for him self when he became the founder of Beta Theta Pi? Leave out of the reckoning altogether the dear delights which, during his lifetime, came to him from the reverent homage of his Beta boys. Forget, if you please, and if, having ever seen it, you can forget, the gentle amazement, the beautiful incredulity with which, at every great gathering of the fraternity, he would contemplate anew the growth and glory of his offspring. Few men, indeed, have ever prepared for themselves in their own lifetime prouder pleasures than these. But it is not of these I speak now, but of the possible ways in which men may live on in the esteem and affection of their fellows, after death, of the achievements by virtue of which one may say in quiet confidence, ‘I shall not die.’ What more enduring shrine could one erect in which to keep alive his name among those who come after him than this fraternity of ours will afford the name of John Reily Knox? “ In the misty years that lie beyond the dawn of another century, when our ten thousand shall have become many times ten thousand, when myths

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shall be growing up about the empty places where the seats of the mighty are now established, that name will be keeping its quiet state. ‘It will never Pass into nothingness, but still will keep A bower quiet fo r us, and a sleep Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.’

“ While the fraternity lives he will live, live in our grateful thoughts and reverent observances, his name inwoven in our traditions and embedded in our records. What securer fame, what worthier immortality than this? Truly the modest, kindly man we have so long called ‘Father Knox’ might have said in his heart, in the very words of Horace, T have reared me a monument more enduring than bronze, loftier than the royal height of pyramids.’ W ith such a monument what other may compare? The marble arch beside the Seine, the stately shaft that rises in Trafalgar Square, the mighty tomb that crowns yon height above the Hudson? N ay; none of these, for they are of the stuff that dreams are made of. The earth hath bubbles, as the water hath, and these are of them. But while the rock and planet crumble, the ether in which they swim abides: abides, and transmits forever the impulses it has received. Material records vanish away, but that which the finger of love hath written shall never fade. ‘Our echoes roll from soul to soul, And grow forever and forever.’

“ Such be thy immortality, and such thy monument, O gentle spirit parted from us! And may we, its priests and guardians, keep worthily and well this temple of thy founding!” In a memorial issue of Beta Theta P i for April, 1898, there were appropriate editorials about “ Pater K nox” (pp. 357-358) and the following articles: “ John Reily K nox” (with portrait), by Lee O. Lantis (pp. 305-308). “ The Funeral Ceremonies,” including a tribute and resolution from the Darke County Bar Association, resolutions by St. Paul’s P. E. Vestry and a Eulogy by Hon. J. T. Martz of the law firm of Knox, Martz and Rupe (pp. 308-314). “ Letter from Commander K nox,” addressed to Mr. William A. Hamil ton, President Beta Theta Pi Fraternity (p. 315). “ Recollections of 1839,” by John Reily Knox (pp. 316-319) (reprinted in The Beta Book, p. 3). “ Letter from John Reily K nox to E. B. Stevens, April 14. 1843” (pp. 320-323) (also reprinted in The Beta Book, p. 2). “ John Reily K nox: The Man and His Monument,” by Willis O. Robb (pp. 324-325). “ In Memory of John Reily K nox,” a poem by Francis Hinckley Sisson (p. 327). “ Resolutions in Regard to the Death of John Reily Knox,” adopted by the Board of Trustees of Beta Theta Pi, March 19, 1898 (p. 328). Four stanzas from the Sisson poem tell of the lasting legacy Knox left us: “ A seed he planted of true love, And humbly cherished it through life. A part from wordly care and strife, He sought this noble work to prove.

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“ He planted better than he knew, And in his death a brothers’ race Arise, and his life’s work embrace, That its fruition may accrue. “ Immortal monument he reared : N o heaven-towering shaft sublime, T o crumble with the waste of time, Recalls his memory revered. “Around his name tradition weaves The thought o f welded human hearts. This memory will survive all arts. A lasting legacy it leaves.” \

JOHN R E IL Y KNOX By

J. T . M a r t z

I remember Honorable J. R. Knox when he was a young man, and I, much younger than he. He was a noble looking man, tall, straight, and of a dignified appearance. He was a law student then, but soon after engaged in the practice of his chosen profession. He was an easy, fluent speaker, and his services were in demand, not only in the courtroom, but at political meetings, as well as at gatherings of a social nature. Mr. Knox was graduated from Miami University in the year 1839. To be a graduate from a college in those days was considered a great accomplishment, gave the graduate a high standing in the education field, and the opinion of such an one, on mathematical and scientific questions was considered conclusive. The writer, having spent sometime in teaching, a few years in securing a college education, then again in teaching and practicing law, had a good opportunity of forming an opinion of the acquirements of J. R. Knox. He had a good mathematical mind, was at home in the literary and scientific field, had a retentive memory, and could repeat quotations from poets, and authors with a readiness that was remarkable; and with these quotations he could give the name of the author and the circumstances which led to their pro duction. He was a mathematician, a scientist, a linguist, a lawyer, and a jurist all combined, and I have known him to spend a few hours in the court room, in the trial of a case involving intricate questions of law, then re turn to his office, read, discuss, and criticize some article in a literary journal with the confidence and freedom that showed his familiarity with the sub ject. His secret of success seemed to be in thoroughly understanding every subject that engaged his attention, and then being able to retain the princi pal questions involved. Mr. Knox may be considered among the first lawyers of Darke County, having been admitted to the bar in 1843, and his life practice was spent in this city, with the exception of one year in Hamilton, Ohio, and four years in Dayton, Ohio. He was thoroughly identified with the interest of Greenville and Darke County, and did much to advance industries of all kinds in the county.

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For a long time he was the legal adviser of the Dayton and Union R. R. Co., and conducted this service to the entire satisfaction of the company; while other corporations and companies sought his services, for he had the reputation of being a good corporation lawyer. He took delight in investigating all legal questions that had a bearing on the case at issue, and the more complex these questions might be, the more determined was he to unravel them, and to make a favorable appli cation to his side of the questions involved. He would take no undue advantage of his opponent, but perhaps, at times, had too great confidence in friends of long standing; for example, a client of his was resisting having some land of his taken within the limits of the city corporation. His wit nesses were to show that the land should not be so taken in. An aged doc tor, a personal friend of Mr. Knox of long standing, and who also had land that, it was thought should remain “ out,” when on the witness stand was asked whether in his opinion this land should be taken into the corporation. He answered “ Yes it should be.” Mr. K nox drily replied, “ Doctor, I will excuse you, you are not the witness I want.” During the war of the rebellion he publicly and privately defended the government. O f necessity, many public meetings were held; addresses were to be made; resolutions were to be drafted, advocated and adopted, and the selection by the public, for these labors, centered in Mr. Knox. It seemed that no other person was thought of, and in our country’s darkest hour, when turbulent and lawless bands in various parts of the country openly defied the efforts put forth for the preservation of the Union, when newspapers criticized, and public speakers boldly condemned the policy of the government, Mr. Knox met these in public debate, and with his firm ness of manner turned the tide of public opinion, and did much to maintain peace and order in the community. When the news of the assassination of President Lincoln reached this city, the feeling was intensely bitter against any sympathizers with the South. The bells were rung; a public meeting was arranged, which Mr. Knox was called upon to address. And it appeared that the influence of his own personality, the eloquence of his address, uttered in that calm, dignified, and pathetic manner peculiar to himself, allayed the storm, subdued revenge, and did away with that feeling of retaliation that seemed to have taken possession of the most excitable in the community. Mr. Knox seemed always to have complete control of him self; his intellectual training, natural ability, and high legal education, his force of character, combined with an honest determination to discharge his whole duty, gave him a standing in the community that commanded respect and brought about desired results. He was always sedate and self-possessed in his preparation and trial of cases in court. His idea was, that principles of law should always con trol his actions in the trial of a case; and with him testimony would always assist in elucidating the principles of law involved in the case. A s an example, he was once engaged in defending his client in a suit for damages brought in favor of a minor who was sued by her next friend, the wife of a well-to-do hotel-keeper. Mr. Knox was opposed by an array of good legal talent, and many witnesses, all in high spirit because of the prospect of an easy victory and their ability to secure a good verdict. Witnesses

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were placed on the stand, and among them the plaintiff, who was questioned particularly as to the manner she and her husband transacted their business, the ownership of the property in which their business was conducted, and who had charge of the minor’s property, etc., when it was made to appear that the husband was the owner and general manager of all these matters of property. A motion was made by Mr. K nox on these facts that the case be dis missed for the reason that the suit was improperly brought, the wife having no legal Capacity to sue; the plaintiff’s attorneys were much surprised when the motion was sustained and the case dismissed at the plaintiff’s costs. The defendant being a single man and the owner of forty acres of valuable land which the plaintiff wanted, at this point remembered that he owed his sister some money and ordered that a deed be drawn immediately for this land in favor of his sister, to cover his debt to her, which was done accordingly. Mr. Knox, coming into the office at this time, remarked that that was all right, “ but a train leaves in ten minutes, and you are badly needed at your place of business in an adjoining state, to which place this train will take you.” The suggestion was at once accepted by the defendant; and there being no means of serving him with another summons, the further prosecution of the case was abandoned. Mr. K nox was not what might be called a technical lawyer, but he was always ready to apply all legal points and decisions that were favorable to his side of the question at issue; he would always deal fairly with his opponent; he would not introduce improper testimony to gain his end; but his idea was, “ give your client all the benefits of the law in the case, and back that up by the most favorable evidence you can produce and with these fairly presented to the court or jury you have discharged your duty to your client.” While he was thus always careful in the discharge of his duty to his clients, he acted upon the principle that the knowledge and experience he had gained were secured by time, labor, and money expended, and these qualifications were a part of his capital invested, and if others would profit or be benefited by this knowledge, they should pay for it; and hence, it was not unusual for him to charge for a legal opinion, or legal advice especially if it were written. H e would not voluntarily give a legal opinion, except to a client, and was heard to say, “ best not tell all you know,” to an uncertain Client or even in a general way. His idea was, let the business find the man, and when he had once accepted a case, he would enlist all his knowledge and energy to bring it to a successful termination. I have known him to spend more than five years on a case; beaten in the common pleas, and circuit courts of the county, but successful in the supreme court of the state, he saw the impres sion and statement that he “ must finally succeed in this case,” come true. And in a case for the appointment of a receiver, and the final winding up of a corporation, organized by a company of men who styled themselves the “ honest farmers,” and when the manner and amounts paid for stock were the principal questions' at issue, and though all parties concerned were personal friends of his, he said, “ Gentlemen, you might as well tell how much you paid for your one share of $1,000, and how you paid it, as this matter will be found out, for while there may be exceptions to this rule,

JOHN REILY KNOX

there cannot be in this case.” And so it was, and the unequal amounts paid by the different stockholders of the corporation and other misrepresentations that were made brought out the severe but just criticism of the court, when the corporation was wound up and judgments rendered that equalized the amounts paid by the “ honest farmers.” Mr. Knox was not a politician, as that term is generally used, and held no political office except presidential elector. In the latter part of the year 1865, when the office of common pleas judge of Darke county became vacant by the resignation of the then incumbent, Mr. Knox might have secured the appointment had he permitted his friends to present his name to the governor of Ohio, as they had intended, but he very magnanimously gave place to another who secured the appointment. He deserved some such public recognition; for he possessed excellent legal ability, was devoted to his profession, was an effective pleader and advocate. In legal and

GRAVE OF PA T E R KNOX In the Greenville, Ohio, Cemetery

general literature he had no equal at the Darke County bar, and he had the bearing and manners of a polished gentleman. Added to this he was a man of unimpeachable integrity and a resolute and successful worker. He possessed a fine literary and scientific taste, was a good con versationalist, and the guiding principle of his life was the golden rule. O f Mr. K nox it may be said, politically, “ that the best of men seldom find their way to the front.” He was always ready to forget self in the advance ment of public interests. What more can we say? What more need be said relative to the character and public acts of J. R. Knox? His life is before us. He lives in the memory of his friends and former associates here. He lives in the minds and hearts of thousands of the college order he founded; and no one can wish a better monument, a more lasting monu ment than that engraven upon the hearts of the noble members of this order. Roy H. Jamison, Ohio Wesleyan ’06, a nephew of Mr. Martz, said: J. T . Martz of Greenville, Ohio, probably had more intimate acquaint N

ote:

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ance with J. R. Knox than any one now living. Himself a college man, being a graduate of the class of 1856 at Ohio Wesleyan and also greatly interested in all literary matters, he naturally became an intimate friend of J. R. K nox early in life. This association was intensified during the time that Mr. Martz was superintendent of the public schools of Green ville from 1856 until 1865, for at that time Mr. Knox was a young attorney in Greenville. The association then formed became more intimate in the following five years during which Mr. Knox and Mr. Martz were law partners. In the following three years the same close friendship was continued as Mr. K nox acted as attorney for Mr. Martz who was then receiver for the Cincinnati, Jackson and Mackinaw Railroad. Again in 1888 these two formed a law partnership which continued up to the time of Mr. K n ox’s death in 1898. A t the time of Mr. K nox’s death as a mark of his appreciation and friendship for Mr. Martz, he bequeathed to him a silver-mounted walking stick presented to him by one of the founders of our fraternity, which he used in his declining years. Thus Mr. Martz speaks with the authority of one who was indeed a very close acquaintance of Mr. Knox. The cane mentioned, by the way, came into my possession eventually and was presented by me to the Ohio Wesleyan chapter at the time of its seventy-fifth anniversary celebration on April 20, 1928.

SA M U EL T A Y L O R M AR SH ALL 1 Honorable Samuel Taylor Marshall, one of the three founders of the Fraternity who were expected to be present at the Founders’ Dinner,2 died at his home in Keokuk, Iowa, on June 13, 1895. W e copy from the Keokuk Constitution the following account of his last illness and some particulars of his career: “ Samuel T . Marshall died at his home, No. 730 Grand Avenue, today at noon, after an illness of several weeks’ duration. “ He had always been until recently remarkably robust for one of his years, and very active. A few months ago, after retiring in his usual good spirits, he arose one morning unable to talk. He had been attacked with aphasia, a congestion of, and changes in, that part of the brain dominating the use of language. Although his mind was as clear and as active as ever, and he could perfectly understand whatever was said to him, yet he could not combine words into sentences, and had to make his communi cations by pantomime. Under treatment this condition improved tempor arily, but his physician warned the family that he might die suddenly at any moment, and he never entirely regained his former power of language. 1 From the Beta Theta P i, Vol. X X III, No. J October, 1895. A picture of Brother M arshall accompanies the article. The newspaper sketch no doubt was written by G. W alter Barr, D e Pauw, ’83. 2 The Founders’ Dinner was held at the Burnet House in Cincinnati on May 24, 1895, after a day’s pilgrimage to “ Old Miami.” Tw o hundred brothers were present. Honorable John A . Finch of Indianapolis, was toastmaster, and responses were made by John *Reily Knox, John W . Noble, Francis W . Shepardson, John Hogarth Lozier, Horace H. Lurton, W illiam C. Sprague, W illiam C. Young, Andrew D. Hepburn, Clyde Brown, Junius E. Beal, and David H. Moore. A n account of pil grimage and banquet is found in the Beta Theta P i, Vol. X X III, No. 1, October, 1895, pp. 14-19.

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His classical training was apparent in the fact that, as he became better, he was able to speak Latin for awhile before the English words came back to his mind. He got better and worse alternately, with no real improve ment until the end came. He made a hard fight against fate, and he always declared that his strength of constitution should be able to pull him through. Today he was unusually better, and shortly before noon took a bath. A fte r dressing himself he lay down on the sofa, remarking how much better he felt. Suddenly and without warning, he closed his eyes in death. It was a peaceful end, just as if he had gone to sleep.

SAM U EL T A Y L O R M A R SH ALL Miami ’40 This picture shows him as he looked in later years

“ Mr. Marshall was born February 26, 1812, in Butler County, Ohio, and his ancestors were of old Virginia and Pennsylvania stock. He grew to manhood on the farm of his father, Gilbert Marshall, which was in sight of the old O xford College. He took a classical course in this school, and graduated' in August, 1840. While at this school he, with others, organized the Greek-letter college society, the Beta Theta Pi, which has grown to such prominence and widespread extent. Mr. Marshall wrote the first constitution and by-laws for the society and was affectionately

BETA LORE regarded by its members as its father. An interesting episode of his life happened about this time. He joined the body of men who called them selves The Patriots, and served in the Canadian rebellion.3 For his activity and military zeal he was commissioned lieutenant colonel. He and a com rade were captured and imprisoned. The court martial found them guilty of invasion, and sentenced them to be transported to Van Dieman’s Land. His comrade was actually transported, but Mr. Marshall so successfully feigned indifference that he was liberated. He returned home, and soon after began to read law in Timothy W alker’s law office in Cincinnati. He completed his studies in the office of Pettit and Orth, Lafayette, Indiana, and returned to Ohio. In December, 1842, he came to Lee County and entered on the practice of law at W est Point, then the county seat, but four years later removed to Keokuk, where he has since resided. About this time he was married to Miss Louisa Patterson, second daughter of the late Colonel William Patterson. O f this union ten children were born, of whom there survive with his wife, Robert Mitchell, county attorney, A l bert Thomas, Chapin Hall, Sabert Taylor, and Miss Maude. Mr. Marshall practiced law until a few years ago, when he retired from active pursuits. He never aspired to political honors, but was an uncompromising Democrat all his life. He was of a genial nature, and made friends of all with whom he came in contact. He was one of the leading members of the Lee county bar.” The particulars of Brother Marshall’s connection with the fraternity are known to all of our well-informed members. The Chicago Convention passed appropriate resolutions concerning his decease,4 and at one of its sessions listened to reminiscences concerning Brother Marshall as recalled by “ Pater” Knox, who spoke feelingly of the lessening number of those who originated the Fraternity. 3 Brother Marshall was one of a large company o f Americans who had a part in the Canadian rebellion, despite the warning of the President of the United States and the proclamation of neutrality. 4These resolutions may be found on p. 64, Minutes of the Forty-sixth General Convention, held in Chicago, 1895. J. Cal Hanna was chairman of the committee, with E. R. H ardy and Galen M. Fisher as colleagues.

IN TE R V IE W S W ITH FOUNDER M ARSH ALL G. W

alter

arr,

De Pauw

’83

Being a Beta and a chance visitor to Keokuk1 of course I made a pilgrim age to the office of the Founder, Samuel Taylor Marshall. In fact I made several pilgrimages, for he is a hard man to find in his office. When at last I found the door unlocked and entered I was face to face with a smoothly shaven gentleman, whom one would not call old at first glance and later is tempted to call middle aged. The office shows that he is not dependent on a law practice for a livelihood. In the middle of the room is a very dusty table, the top of which looks like it had been struck by an Iowa cyclone which left the Beta Theta P i on top the debris, as was fitting. On the wall opposite the door is a bookcase with opaque glass doors, behind the dust of which are probably law books; to definitely deter1 E xtract from an article by Dr. G. W . Barr in the Beta Theta P i for November, 1890, pp. 73-74.

IN TERVIEW S W ITH FOUNDER M ARSHALL mine this would belong to the archaeologist. In fact the occupant of the office has a position in southeastern Iowa which renders conventionalities beneath his notice. You first see him seated in an arm chair facing the door, and the word Beta suddenly transforms him from a dignified coun selor at law into a cordial, frank gentleman of the old school that one would expect to find on a Southern plantation rather than in the North west. There is nothing finer than that Southern air, and one feels it all the time he is with the grand old man. A man like Judge Marshall always takes you to his house and makes you wish you could stay there always. I had just left off an attempt to be eloquent before the “ medics” on the subject of sewage air, and stepped from the platform into the arms of the demonstrator of anatomy, who rushed me along a hall, while he rattled off, “There’s a brother of yours in the office, and he says he must see you at once.” It was Judge Marshall, who had told everybody I was his long lost brother, and that everybody around the college must treat me well or incur dire calamities from his wrathful looks. In a half hour he told me more about the Fraternity than I ever knew before. He rattled away about the birth of the Fraternity, and it made one shudder to hear him speak of those venerable men as if they were common mortals. He had just found the first and only original copy of the Con stitution among some musty law papers, and told how the expose of the ritual of a leading order, then causing some excitement, gave assistance in formulating the oath and “ work” of the embryo fraternity.2 He bought the first six3 badges in Cincinnati and wears one of them on his shirt front every day— chased gold without any enamel and a trifle longer than the badge of today; but one would recognize it a long way off. He has never quite got over the publication of the Constitution, for he was in the harness when secrecy and mystery were the first idea a college man had of a college fraternity.4 His standing at his home is the standing in his own community that every Beta is taught to strive for. One cannot help thinking that Beta Theta Pi and the personal character of Samuel Taylor Marshall are twin brothers from the mind and heart of that young man at Miami, which have grown side by side for half a century and now are so much alike that their common parentage is obvious. ★

★

When I published a character sketch of Samuel Taylor- Marshall in our magazine5 soon after I first knew him, I did not fully appreciate his great 2 W illiam M organ’s Illustration of Masonry was first published in 1826, copy right being dated August 14, 1826. Following it came a flood o f similar books. 3 In another place “nine” is used instead of “ six.” 4 See a letter from George Hoadly, written December 4, 1844, and printed in the Beta Theta P i, March, 1881, p. 150, containing the sentence, “The constitution of Alpha Delta Phi is in the hands of a gentleman who will probably publish it, and if this is done there will remain but one society to oppose us, for the Alpha Delta Phi after such a disclosure will certainly perish.” Brother Hoadly, who was a very active Beta in college was Governor of Ohio from 1884 to 1886. (See Baird: Betas of Achievement, p. 158.) 5 These reminiscences o f Samuel Taylor Marshall are in the form of a conver sation with Dr. G. W alter Barr. (See B aird: Betas o f Achievement, p. 35.) Dr. Barr lived in Keokuk, Iowa, with Brother Marshall for several years. The “character

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heart. A fter living in the same city with him for four years I feel that I cannot emphasize it enough. Nothing is too much trouble for him when he can oblige a friend. He has spent weeks hunting among his old papers to find for me some documentary evidence of old time facts; and it was in one of these searches that he found the original copy of the Con stitution and Ritual tied up among some papers in another case of Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce. He made an autograph copy for me which is my choicest possession, and which the executor of my last will and testament will transmit to Delta chapter6 some day. His remembrance of details is remarkable and a chance reference to some friend of long ago will cause him at once to give his biography and post-office address. The one thing which he always put off is writing for me the history of the infancy of the fraternity. His oratory is of the rhetorical school which reminds one of a mountain chain bristling with peaks. His conversation is as pic turesque as an Indian village, and he dislikes the level plain of narrative. Realizing the increasing importance of the preservation in permanent form of the history of the genesis of Beta Theta Pi, I determined that I would sit as a scribe at his feet and have him relate to me all the incidents of 1839, and this is what he told me. Alpha Delta Phi had a chapter at Miami, and an intimate friend of Marshall one day surprised the latter by asking him how he would like to join that fraternity. Marshall replied that he would have to study about that, having in mind that secret societies were very unpopular with both faculty and students, and membership in one might be a detriment to one, and at the end of a week gave a negative answer. But the idea, planted in his mind, started a train of thought about the possibility of a society which would be so secret that neither professors nor students would sus pect its existence or at least know its membership. This latter idea in volved a regulation that no badges should be worn during undergraduate life,7 and around it he proceeded to write a Constitution, which afterwards was that of Beta Theta Pi.8 A ll this was early in the spring, and Marshall diligently studied “ exposes” of older esoteric societies as the work progressed and the Ritual was be gun.9 The greatest difficulty he had was to find three Greek words which were adequate in themselves to express the fundamental spirit of the frater nity he had in mind. Marshall was never satisfied with slovenly work, and spent days poring over a Grove’s Greek lexicon, hunting for the proper signs for his new idea.10 Beta was found first. Two days later Theta was sketch” mentioned was published in the Beta Theta P i, November, 1890, p. 73. Brother Marshall died June 13, 1895. 6 Members of the De Pauw chapter cherish the name “ Delta.” They represent a large element in the fraternity which prefers the Greek chapter names to the more common modern college names which have come into vogue with the decline of the classics in college curricula. 7 A rticle 9 o f the original Constitution provided: “The badge shall not be worn by any member while in attendance at college or in such other places as may be thought imprudent or deemed by him self or this Association unsuitable.” 8T his Constitution contained thirteen articles, the last one including ten obligations required o f all candidates fo r membership. 9 Compare this statement with that of “ Pater” K n ox ( The Beta Book, p. 31.) 10 Compare this statement, naming the lexicon used, with the words of Brother Knox, “ I got the Greek Lexicon and turned it over several times in search o f a name.” ( The Beta Book p. 21.)

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accepted and not for several days more was Pi added to complete the triad, although the last word was not entirely satisfactory at the time. It was upon one o f the first three days of July that the new Constitution and Ritual was declared completed by its author; and he says he thought of the nation’s natal day as the proper one for the birthday of his new fraternity. On July 2 or 3, Marshall spoke to John Reily Knox, with whom he was very intimate, and showed the latter his manuscript with which K nox was greatly pleased.11 By mutual consent of Marshall and Knox, James George Smith was taken into their confidence. These made the three necessary to form a chapter, and all were especially pleased at the provision that no visible badge should be worn. Some changes were made in the Ritual after consultation together, and on July 4, 1839, everything was completed and as it remained for at least several years. Marshall obligated each of the others in turn and thinks Thomas Boston Gordon was the first to be initiated in due form.12 The constitution limited the membership to nine, and inside of ten days the number was complete, the names being those on the first page of the Catalogue of 1881 and also Henry J. Johnson, the next on the list in that catalogue.13 The meetings at this time all occurred in Marshall’s room in the now demolished west wing of the main college building. A t commencement, about August 13, the graduates displayed their badges for the first time and created quite a sensation.14 A thousand lines of doggerel were written about the new fraternity and its members, which were scattered over the campus on slips of papers according to the custom then prevalent. The members of Alpha Delta Phi greeted her new asso ciate in a friendly spirit however. That night a group in Marshall’s room sat up until dawn writing doggerel in reply, which he composed and the others copied and distributed over the campus. Marshall says, “ W e downed them.” The Reverend John Mason Bishop, who was born and died in Oxford15 told Marshall in 1889 that he had collected many of these slips 11 “ Pater” K nox says that “ Marshall suggested the idea of building up a Society,” but that he himself was afraid it would not succeed. Then he credits Marshall with the enthusiasm which was needed to make him equally “ sanguine.” “ The idea once started, he would not give it up until I started to work.” ( The Beta Book p. 2.) 12 “ Pater” Knox states, “ Charles Hardin roomed next door to Marshall, so we called him in, and I initiated him and T aylor.” It is to be noted that these words were written in April, 1843, less than four years after the Fraternity was founded, and long before any possible Cincinnati influence could have misled Brother Knox into thinking himself the real founder, in case he was not. Furthermore, in his “ The E arly Days o f Beta Theta P i,” written fo r the Fraternity thirty years later (Decem ber, 1873) the “ P ater” states, facetiously, “ I administered the obligations to the members present, but by inadvertence no one qualified me in turn, so that I am scarcely able to say, though my name has always been borne on the catalogue, that I am entitled to the privileges o f those who wear the badge and bear the name of Beta Theta P i.” {The Beta Book p. 4.) 13 The early records of Alpha chapter prove conclusively that this statement by Marshall is erroneous. The first regular meeting was not held until August 8, 1839, and Brother Johnson was not initiated until November 14, 1839. That James G. Smith, M arshall’s roommate, was the third one chosen seems reasonable, although, in his letter of 1843, K nox says Charles Hardin was the one. ( The Beta Book p. 2.) 14K nox, Linton, and Ryan were members o f the class of 1839. 15 Rev. John Mason Bishop was a member of Alpha Delta Phi in the class o f 1839. H e was born in Lexington, Kentucky, April 2, 1819, and died in O xford, Ohio, December 26, 1890.

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and believed he had them yet at his home in Indiana. Knox graduated and Marshall returned the next year in the Senior class. , W hile engaged on the Constitution, Marshall had also worked on a design for a badge. His ideas have been preserved in its symbolism as at present taught.16 He desired the date to be unintelligible to any but Greek students and sought in Velpo’s Greek grammar the proper method of expressing the date 1839. A fter he had studied it out, he was not certain of the correctness of his formula and consulted Knox about the matter after the admission of the latter. Knox at first thought Marshall’s copy incorrect but later both decided that it was right, as it was. A t once after the completion of the chapter Marshall was selected to go to Cincinnati to purchase nine badges for the members in accordance with his design. A fter some inquiry in the city he was recommended to one Samuel S. Carley, who was said to be h jeweler of great skill. Carley told him that to make a badge like his paper sample would require a steel die. Marshall bargained for nine badges at ten dollars each, the die to become his own property, and in a few days returned to Cincinnati and got them. They were of gold with the figures in relief on a roughened ground. Carley wanted to keep the die in his own custody to get a monopoly of the manufacture and to this Marshall consented. It was never returned and Marshall did not know of any others than the original nine being made from it. In 1889 he could not find a memory of Carley in Cincinnati. Mar shall kept his badge until a few years ago when he loaned it to his brotherin-law for a short time. The latter lost it, and some time later it was re turned by a hod carrier who found it on Blondeau Street. Marshall wears it continually now on his shirt front and believes all the others to be lost. If anybody succeeded in saving one, he thinks it would be careful David Linton. When Gordon died he left unfinished a letter addressed to Marshall which was forwarded by his daughter who later told Marshall that Gordon’s badge could not be found. Marshall's badge was mislaid later and he had an exact duplicate made in Cincinnati which he seldom wears. N ext I asked the man, who was a shrewd enough student of human nature to originate a fraternity of rather extraordinary vigor, what were the personal characteristics of the nine boys who witnessed its birth. He knew them well. But that takes us from facts to opinion and had better be another'story. I hereby certify that the foregoing is in whole and in detail a correct 16 This statement is not correct in all details. The three stars remain and the Greek date. But the meaning of the three stars has changed. A note to the original Constitution describes the mathematical relationship of 3 and 9 showing the minimum and maximum of chapter membership, the idea being taken, no doubt, from capitular Masonry. “ The new moon or crescent is an emblem of increase in knowledge and virtue day by day. It is not used as the Turks and Arabs do. They blazon it on the flags and banners as opposition to the cross. The heart with the spear passed through it is the penalty to those who betray the Beta Theta Pi, or its members.” These emblems were soon abandoned. The Alpha Delta Phi badge of 1839 had one five-pointed star of green enamel with a gold center, over a crescent o f white enamel bearing the Greek capital letters o f the fraternity name and beneath was the date in gold, 1832, these emblems being on a black enameled, gold bordered slab. On the reverse were the name of the owner, a monument crossed by two swords, and the name of the chapter. M arshall’s first badge idea, therefore, was a modified Alpha Delta Phi badge, probably the only college fraternity badge he had even seen.

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account of the founding of Beta Theta P i and is substantially complete in all essential parts. S. T. M a r s h a l l To estimate adequately the character of others one must be a shrewd student of human nature as it is, have had much experience in the world, and be of the judicial temperament which naught conceals and naught sets down in malice.17 These are the peculiar characteristics of Samuel Taylor Marshall, as he is today, and as his associates say he has been for years. The judgment of such a man upon his fellows is sure to be nearly correct, and I have embraced the opportunity to learn from him something of the personality of the boys at Miami who were the protoplasm which Marshall enlivened into the germ of Beta Theta Pi. That December evening he was in the mood of the careful lawyer, weighing his reminiscent facts as carefully as if he were writing a b rie f; and he has as many moods as the Mississippi which flows a few yards from his door. A s they give strong internal evidence of the value of his im pressions, I took down his remarks verbatim. “ What kind of a student was K nox?” he was asked. “ He was studious,18 notably modest, manly, and a splendid character in every way. He did not take to athletics, not being a rugged boy, and seldom played football. His college life was a dead level on a high plane and he always stood high with the faculty.” The first page of the last catalogue was in evidence, and the next ques tion in natural order was, “ What about Marshall?” “ I was really an athlete and could beat anybody playing football, and threw down anybody but one, William Y . Patton19 whom I threw no oftener than he threw me. By the way, I learned a good deal about wrestling from him. L o rd ! L o rd ! but he was a good wrestler! I did many tricks in which I was generally discovered, and John W . Scott, President Harrison’s father-in-law20 saved me at least twice from suspension or expulsion.21 17 A n interview with Samuel Taylor Marshall by Dr. G. W alter Barr, De Pauw, ’83. Published in the Beta Theta P i for January-February, 1895, Vol. X X II, No. 3, pp. r67-169. 18 The Miami U niversity Alumni Catalogue credits K nox with “first rank in his class.” 19 W illiam Y . Patton was a member of the class of 1842. H e was a Southerner, born A pril 30, 1819, thus being seven years the junior o f Marshall. H e became a lawyer and planter in Mississippi, his date o f death being unknown. Curiously enough there was a W illiam W . Patton in the same class, also a Southerner, and a brother of John F. Patton, the third of that fam ily name in the class o f 1842. 20John W- Scott, who was born January 22, 1800, was a famous professor at Miami from 1832 to 1845. Later he was head of O xford Female College. For eight years he was a professor at Hanover College. He died in the W hite House, November 29, 1892, during the administration of President Harrison. 21This sentence in M arshall’s statement suggested that it might be possible to find out something about the Founders from the records o f Miami University. I wrote President Hughes, and received a letter from George Bishop, business di rector, dated November 11, 1913, as follow s: “ President Hughes has referred to me your letter asking for information with regard to the grades and college life of the founders o f Beta Theta Pi. I find that we have complete records of all the grades since the year 1840, and that is just a few years too late to embrace any of the founders except H enry Hardin- I find that that year he ranked eighth in his class, having a grade of 94 in scholarship and 98 in general character. From

BETA LORE I was always doing something a little out of ordinary. I never denied to the professors what I did, but never would tell on the others.” “ W ho was Linton?” He was a Quaker, broad shouldered and chunky, raised on a farm. He was a little older than any in our class22 save one. He was a good debater, a thinking man, and was very methodical. A sentence he frequently used was ‘No man has authority for believing anything until he submits it to the tribunal of reason.’ ” “ The next is Smith.” “ He was a pale, studious, quiet fellow in delicate health. I never saw such an eater in my life, and he never took physical exercise. Whatever lesson he prepared he understood, and could parse to the last single letter and word. He never forgot to be a gentleman, but took no pride in dress, although well off financially.” “And Hardin?” “ He was a bright student, and it didn’t take him half the time to get his lessons that it did the others. He was the only member of Beta Theta Pi at that time who could get a lesson as quickly as I could. He was noted as a cheerful, pleasant, agreeable companion. When he came to college he could read the New Testament in Greek like English, his mother having kept him under a clergyman, but knew not a word of Latin.23 They put him in my room and gave him ninety days to catch up in Latin. Scott asked me to help him, and in ninety days he was above mediocrity in that language.” “ W hat kind of a fellow was Duncan at that time?” “ John Holt was a Southerner, the best dressed boy in the class, and the best appearing young gentleman in the whole college. But he couldn’t study mathematics. In the other departments he stood well.” “ W hat do you remember about Ryan?” “ Mike was a splendid fellow, whole-souled and all heart; had more an examination of the faculty minutes o f that period I do not find that any o f the founders were ever brought before the faculty for misconduct or any other purpose, so I presume they were reasonably proper sort of fellows.” “ T h e word “class” must have been a slip here, for Linton graduated in 1839 and Marshall in 1840. It is probable that “chapter” or “ fraternity” was meant. The “one” exception was Marshall himself. He was born in 1812, Linton in 1815, Gordon and Johnson in 1817, Smith in 1819, Knox, Ryan and Duncan in 1820, and Hardin in 1821. 23 Brother M arshall’s memory was at fault here. In The L ife and Writings of Governor Charles Henry Hardin, by his w ife, M ary Barr Hardin, p. 17, a letter is printed from W illiam R. Harding, principal of the preparatory department of Indiana University or “ Indiana College” as it is called in this letter dated October 6, 1837. T he letter sa y s : “ His progress in the Latin language was, I am convinced, unprecedented, and never equalled at any form er time in this or any other American institution; fo r he has completed the entire preparatory course in the short space o f eighteen weeks. The number of days wherein he recited to me was ninety-seven in all, and during that time he had made such a proficiency as called forth the unani mous approbation of the examining committee and o f the president himself, who congratulated him sincerely on his advancement in a language, which to acquire an adequate knowledge of, would require in ordinary capacities a no less period than fifteen months.” This biography furnishes no evidence of the truth of Brother M arshall’s state ment “his mother having kept him under a clergyman.” Hardin attended Indiana University 1837-1839, receiving a letter of honorable dismissal in March, 1839.

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heart than half a dozen boys ought to have. He had fits and starts of study and was a kind of an athlete, too.” 24 “ Gordon was rather a favorite of yours, was he not?” “ Tom Boston Gordon was as studious a boy as could be found in any college or any place. He was a vigorous debater and hard worker. He was noted for ingenuity in debate for one of his age. He was a critical scholar and loved literature. He came from a wealthy family, but wore as poor clothes as he could pick up. I don’t believe I ever saw him with a necktie on. He played football with the rest of us and was full of energy.” “ What about Johnson?” “ If I could sum his whole character up, it would be th is: He never had any childhood. He was a boy of sober thought and naturally religious, instinctively so. He was of cheerful disposition, withal, and a nice com panion.” ★

★

With these interviews properly goes a letter to Dr. Barr written by Founder Marshall’s daughter, Maud (now Mrs. Hassall) : Keokuk, Iowa, November 4, 1912. M y dear Dr. B a r r : I have a very vivid recollection of the incident in the little hotel in O xford about which you asked me to write you fo r its permanent preservation. I can see the counter now where father pounded with his fist while talking with John R eily Knox. The essentials of what happened are as follows. One morning in the hotel, at the semi-centennial25 we met Mr. K nox and mother and I were introduced to him. A fter a little commonplace talk father said, “Reily, it seems to me that you are getting the credit as the founder o f the fraternity. H ow did that get out?” “W hy, Taylor, I did found that Society,” K n ox replied. Then father began with much energy and gesticulation and pounding o f the counter, “W h y you didn’t. Don’t you know I went and got the name and took it to you because you were the oldest26 and told you about it and the new society I had 24 Brother Marshall’s references to athletics in this interview lend interest to this quotation from A lfre d Upham’s Old Miami, pp. 174-175: “Athletic sports were crude proceedings then, compared with our modem system o f elaborate training and intercollegiate schedules. There was no place for mollycoddles in them, either, and science gave way to brute strength and native agility. Impromptu wrestling matches of a decidedly catch-as-catch-can type were very much in vo g u e; and boxing contests, without seconds, ropes or gloves were no rare occurrences. A football game, in which every fellow booted the ball when he wasn’t planting a coppered toe in an opponent’s eye, was a fine working-off of animal spirits. But the test of real, genuine, bluetempered nerve was the old swing. It was easy enough when you got in practice. Easy as— well, as falling off a hickory limb in nutting time. But it looked terrible to a new freshman. It was one good rope fastened to an iron ring some thirty feet up in the air. This rope ended in a loop, dangling a foot or so from the ground. Thirty feet away was another tree, with a projecting branch the proper distance up. Here the performance began. Y o u skinned up the tree number two, and caught the loop, which somebody kindly threw you. In this you inserted your foot, and began to feel squeamish inside. Then with your free hand you seized the rope as far out as possible, while you took a final fleeting glimpse of your past sins. Then you swung off, clutching at the rope with your other hand en route. A t your age a broken bone would knit in about six weeks.” 25 The semi-centennial celebration was held in O xford, June 19, 1889. A full account of the meeting is given in the Beta Theta P i fo r April-June, 1889, pp. 205-2x2. It states that K n ox and Marshall met for the first time in forty years. “ The Miami University Alumni Catalogue (Centennial Edition, 1909) says that K n o x was born in Butler County, Ohio, M ay 20, 1820, (p. 32) and that Marshall

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in mind and you said, ‘Yes, Taylor, that would be a good scheme,’ and then I went out and got the men after we talked over whom to have. Don’t you remember?” father continuing, and he kept on with a multitude of details, after repeating “ Don’t you remember when I went to your room— ” and similar expressions to recall things to the mind o f Knox. Finally Knox said, “W ell, Taylor, I guess you’re right but I thought I did it.” 27 D uring this conversation I was listening intently, and mother and I were amused at the force father was putting into his gesticulations and poundings of the counter. H aving secured K nox’s admission that father had founded the fraternity of Beta Theta Pi, father slowed down and the talk ran on from the actual beginnings of the fraternity to reminiscences of their student days. It was very clear to mother and me that Knox had been honest in claiming to be the prime founder, but discovered and admitted his mistake after father had refreshed his memory with so many inci dents and details of that time and its activities. Cordially yours. M

aud

M. M

arsh all

D AVID LINTON The American Linton family from which Founder David Linton sprang goes back to Sir Roger Linton, of Cumberland County, England, who had removed from Yorkshire to that place where he set up his residence. The family primarily was English but had a strain of Scotch blood. Sir Roger had sons John, Jacob, Samuel, Benjamin, Roger, and James. John Linton, one o£ Sir Roger’s sons, was educated at Oxford, and after graduation became a minister of the established church. On one occasion he was asked to accompany, as a sort of theological expert, a squad of soldiers sent out to break up a Quaker meeting. He was supposed to watch for any actions or expressions which might be interpreted as treason against the united church-state. He was so much impressed by what he saw and heard at the meeting that he accepted the teachings of the new faith and became a Quaker himself. This so angered his father, Sir Roger, that he disinherited John and expelled him from the home. John Linton, who was born in Low Crosby, Cumberland County, E n g land, in the tenth month, 1662, undertook for a means of livelihood to learn the carpenter’s trade. He also served as a Quaker preacher and became “an associate of William Penn.” He married, March 11, 1692, Rebecca Relfs, of Wigton, in Cumberland. On November 8, 1692, a young man of thirty, was born 'February 26, 1812 (p. 36). “ Oldest” must mean, if these' dates are cor rect, oldest in point of college ranking. In the obituary notice of Brother Marshall, published in the Beta Theta P i for October, 1895, pp. 49-50, it is stated, “ Mr. Marshall was born in Butler County, Ohio, February 26, 1812.” In the K n ox memorial num ber of the Beta Theta P i, April, 1898, the birth date, M ay 20, 1820, is confirmed. 27 F or a consideration o f the conflicting claims of K n ox and Marshall see an article by Francis W . Shepardson, “ K nox or Marshall” in the Beta Theta Pi, February, 1911, pp. 307-312, with memorandum by W illiam Raimond Baird, the* general con clusions favoring “ Pater” K n o x as the prime founder. Mr. Baird’s memorandum says, “ The account o f the foundation of the fraternity published in the first edition of the Handbook in 1894 (see B aird: Fraternity Studies, pp. 9-12)) was submitted in proof sheets to both K n ox and Marshall. Marshall wrote on the margin, “ That seems about right,” and returned the sheets. K nox wrote that he thought the minutes o f Alpha chapter were the best guide. A fterw ard the editor had two conversations with K n ox about the matter, and K nox claimed unqualifiedly to be the founder of the fraternity.” Mr. Baird says (see Baird: Fraternity Studies, 1894, p. 12), ‘ It would seem that both K n ox and Marshall had independently conceived the idea of forming such a society, and that it only took shape after it had been mutually discussed.”

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he landed in Philadelphia. In Albert Cook Myers’ Quaker Arrivals at Philadelphia 1682-1750, on page 26, it is recorded, “John Linton and w ife Rebecca, late of Wigton from monthly meeting at Long Newton, England, dated 6 mo. 25, 1699. ‘He walked amongst us these several years.’ ‘She came of believing parents and was Educated in ye way of truth from Child hood.’ ” He removed from Philadelphia to Newton, where he died. The old family Bible gives his children as Joseph, Benjamin, John, and Mary, Benjamin being born in 1703, sixth month, tenth day. His son, Benjamin Linton, who first married Elizabeth White on the third month, twenty-fifth day, 1727, married, as his second wife, on the fourth month, thirtieth day, 1733, Jane Cowgal. His occupation is recorded as “ astronomer.” He died at the age of sixty-nine years, seven months, and fifteen days. His children, three by his first wife and eight by the second, w e re : 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

John Linton, born December 26, 1727. Martha Linton, born November 15, 1729. M ary Linton, born December 16, 1731. Lucia Linton, born April 22, 1734. Benjamin Linton, born February 21, 1736. Joshua Linton, born January 22, 1738. Sarah Linton, born September 14, 1739. Samuel Linton, born December 17, 1741. Jane Linton, born October 12, 1743Daniel Linton, born July 16, 1746. Hezekiah Linton, born December 4, 1748.

In 1802, Samuel Linton left Bucks County, Pennsylvania, by wagon for Pittsburgh. Thence he went on a raft down the Ohio to Cincinnati, and again by wagon to Waynesville, Warren County, Ohio. His recorded religion is “ Friend” and his occupation a weaver, although he also man aged his farm. In his later years he was badly crippled with rheumatism. He died in Waynesville at the age of eighty-one years, four months, and ten days. He married, M ay 10, 1775, Elizabeth Harvey. Their children w ere: 1. 2. 3.

Samuel Linton, born M ay 18, 1776. Nathan Linton, born January 17, 1778. David Linton, born January 27, 1781.

E feli'th 'L in to n , } twins' born 1 1

6. James Linton, born March 10, 1789.

Samuel Linton was accompanied to Ohio by his son Nathan. The latter was a surveyor and farmer. He surveyed Wilmington, county seat and largest town of Clinton County, Ohio, as well as many farm boundary lines. He also farmed a thousand acres of land. On this tract he built a substantial brick house with a fireplace in every room and from each an ash chimney leading to an ash cellar under the house, from which the ashes were taken to large ash hoppers where they were leached to make the family soap. In the kitchen fireplace was a large and a small brick oven where the bread, pies, and puddings were baked for the family, for this house was built before the days of cookstoves. Another peculiar feature of the house was that there were two stairways, each leading from the broad front hall in the front of the house to the second floor, one used by the family and the other by the “ hired help” ; and the two parts

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of the second floor were completely separated by a solid brick wall. The ruins of this house, destroyed by fire, still stand. The barn was long and rambling, where the children burrowed a tunnel from the apex of the roof to the floor of the mow through the hay. There were orchards all around, with apple, pear, peach, and ^cherry trees, and larges patches of berries. It was Eg this homestead that Founder David Linton was born. Nathan Linton also owned a dam site on Todd s Fork, on one side of which was a grist mill and on the other side a sawmill. He was a “ Friend” in religion and allied himself with the Republican party when that party was born. He Mg died in Wilmington, aged eighty years and twentyfour days. In February, 1806, he married Rachel Smith, who was the daughter of Seth and Elizabeth (Littler) Smith. She was born on the eighteenth day of the first month, 1790, and died on the thirtieth day of the fourth month, 1859, aged sixty-nine years, three months, and twelve days. Her great grandfather on her moth N A T H A N L I N T O N ’S H O M E er’s side, John Littler, Ruins standing (1928) of the house in which Founder came from England; her Linton was bQrn. great-grandmother, Mary Ross, the w ife of John Littler, came from Wales. Her great-grandfather on her father’s side came from England with William Penn and settled in Pennsylvania, where he reared and educated a son, Joseph Smith. This son married Rachel Bales, a Pennsylvania Quakeress, and settled in Maryland, near Bladensburg. A few years later he moved to Winchester, Virginia, where he and his wife ended their days. There were eleven chil dren in the fam ily: Isaac, Jacob, Abraham, William, Nathan, Seth, Levi, Mary, Joseph, Caleb, and Enoch. In 1800 the son Seth removed to Ohio, while it was still a territory. He landed at the Falls of Paint in Ross County, but in 1811 moved to Clark County, where the Smith homestead still stands, now in the possession of his grandson, also named Seth Smith. On the fifth day, third month, 1787, he married Elizabeth Littler. Their children were Mary, Rachel, Jacob, Ruth, Samuel, and Seth, the second named becoming the w ife of Nathan Linton, as above stated. To Nathan and Rachel (Smith) Linton, twelve children were born, as follows: 1. Elizabeth Linton, born July 29, 1807. She became the_ mother of Hon. Ben jamin Butterworth, for years a member of Congress from Ohio. 2. Abi Linton, born November 25, 1808. 3. Samuel Linton, born November 17, 1810. 4. Seth Linton, born October 5, 1812. 5. David Linton, born January 30, 1815; became a founder o f Beta Theta Pi. 6. Nathan Linton, died in infancy, 1821. 7. James Linton, born January 17, 1817.

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M ary Linton, born April 2i, 1819. 9 - Benjamin Linton, born M ay 7, 1823. Cyrus Linton, born April 17, 1825. xo. 11. Ruth Linton, born April 23, 1827. 12. Jane Linton, born July 3, 1829; died in childhood.

David Linton (Nathan, Samuel, Benjamin, John, Sir Roger) graduated from Miami in 1839, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Then he studied law in Cincinnati Law School, graduating in 1840. In that year he opened a law office in Wilmington, Ohio, practicing law there for twentyfive years. He was pros ecuting attorney of Clin ton County from 1845 to 1847 and served as State Senator from 1853 to 1855. In 1865, largely on account of poor health, he moved to Linn County, Kansas, and en gaged in stock raising, taking the first thor oughbred cattle into the county and establishing one of the"first thorough bred herds in the state. He was probate judge of — Picture by Mrs. Clara Linton Brewster the county from 1867 to F O U N D E R L I N T O N ’S H O M E 1869. Soon after enter The trees are so thick in the foreground that only ing upon the duties of a glimpse is afforded of the pillared house in this office he suffered a Wilmington, Ohio, where David Linton lived. light stroke of paralysis, from which he seemingly recovered; but as soon as his- term of office expired he returned to his farm where the fresh air and quiet doubtless prolonged his life, though he never again was entirely well. In 1884 he had a severe stroke of paralysis which left one side almost helpless. In 1887 he removed to Pleasanton, Kansas, that he might be near a physician and also to enable his daughter, Mrs. Clara L. Brewster, to attend to the details of his business under his instruction; for, while his paralysis affected his tongue, making speech difficult, his mind remained clear till death came August 10, 1889. A t the semi-centennial of Alpha chapter the following letter from a daughter was read: Farlinville, Linn County, Kansas, June 15, 1889. D e a r S i r : Your letter to my father, Hon. D . Linton, requesting his at tendance at the semi-centennial celebration of Alpha chapter of Beta Theta Pi, is at hand, but owing to father’s removal from the homestead to Pleasanton, Linn County, Kansas, and his physical inability to answer, could he receive it in time to reach you by the 19th inst., I take the liberty of answering for him. It affords him real pleasure to know that he is remem bered by the fraternity, and were he able he would be glad to be with you. Several years since, father was prostrated by a stroke of paralysis that has left him a physical wreck, and of late has impaired his mental faculties. In

BETA LORE fact, his life now is in the past. He almost daily recalls the scenes of child hood and early manhood. One of the great solaces of his old age is his memory of old Miami, and he often speaks of the “ boys” who were with him in the founding of your chapter. I will forward your letter to him im mediately and trust that your gathering on the above occasion will be a happy one. Please accept my regrets for the inability of my father to be with you in person. Yours kindly, L aura L

in t o n

L ow e

Founder Linton married Ann Thomas and raised a family of nine chil dren. She w.as the daughter of a Presbyterian minister. Remembering the interesting story told above about the conversion of John Linton to the Quaker faith, the fact should be noted that the yearly meeting expelled David Linton for marrying outside the communion, so that he was unattached to a religious body in his later years. The children of this marriage were: 1. Laura Linton, married Captain E. C. Lowe. She edited a newspaper in Mound City, Kansas, and was considered an able woman. No children. 2. Elizabeth Linton, married Captain M yron M. Corbin. She was a woman of pronounced ability and a devoted mother. Four children were born of whom two are living, Professor A rth ur Linton Corbin of the Y ale Law School, and Professor Alberta Linton C orbin ’of the University of Kansas, whose first dormitory for women, Corbin Hall, is named in her honor. 3. H orace Linton, the oldest son to attain even boyhood, was a iarmer and merchant. H e married Sarah Brockman and had two sons, Clarence Brockman Linton and Samuel Guy Linton, both living in California, where their father is buried at Los Angeles. 4. Clara Latelle Linton, married Captain Robert E. Brewster who rose from private to captain in the Civil W ar. His widow has his sword engraved, “ Living or dying, God and my country, from mother.” He carried this sword through thirtythree battles, all in V irginia except Gettysburg, during four years and three months o f service, in which time he was wounded five times, the last time at Appomattox. H e died in 1892. One child was born, Helen Barten Brewster, A.B. and A.M ., Kansas, and Ph.D., Cornell. She married Professor F. W . Owens, head o f the mathematics department at Pennsylvania State College, a Chicago doctor of philosophy. In 1911 and 1912 she was a lecturer and organizer in the campaign in Kansas for woman’s suffrage. Returning to her home in Ithaca, New York, she became chairman of the sixth district whose nine counties contained a larger population than that of Kansas. From 1917 to 1922 she was instructor in mathematics in Cornell University. She was treasurer o f the Community House at Ithaca until the $30,000 debt upon it was paid off. They had two children, Helen Brewster Owens (1905-1928), A.B., Cornell, 1925; and Clara Brew ster Owens, A.B. Cornell, 1925. 5. Clarence Linton, married Eva Jane Griffith and is a contractor and builder in Kansas City, Missouri. T hey have three children. 1. Nita Linton, married A. R. Brown, a civil engineer in Burmingham, Alabama. One child, M ary K err Brown. 2. E lfrid a Linton, married Benjamin Hawkins, Goshen, Indiana. 3. Clyde David Linton, an ice dealer in Seattle, Washington, who married and has one daughter. 6. Emma Linton o f Oswego, Kansas, youngest living child (1928), graduated in the first class of the Medical Department, University o f Kansas, and also from the U niversity o f Illinois Medical School in Chicago, and served in the Chicago W om an’s Hospital. She married Dr. John Bradley H ill and had four children, only one surviving infancy, Helen H ill, who married Professor C. F. Craig, o f Cornell University, and had two children, David Linton Craig and Margaret Jean Craig. 7. M ary Linton, who died December 16, 1909, was twice married. (1) To Robert Fisher, o f Kansas City, and (2) T o David Hunter, o f St. Louis. She had no children.

For the family pictures and the information about the Lintons the frater nity is indebted to Mrs. Clara L. Brewster.

DAVID LINTON Founder Linton’s letters to Pater Knox, a number of which have been preserved, reveal a heart full of the joy of life. The former joked much about a certain red-haired girl Knox loved, and he used to say to his folks that if he ever had a red-haired child he would kill it. Fate brought him two such, and of them he was specially fond. An extract from one of these in timate letters is illuminating as to local conditions at O xford and as to Lin ton’s high ideal for Beta Theta Pi. On November 19, 1840, referring to a

F O U N D E R D A V ID L IN T O N A s he looked about-1864, while living in Wilmington, Ohio.

bitter internal religious controversy on the campus in which the president ( “ old Doc” ) was a prominent leader, Linton wrote K nox: “ I have heard the old Doc was playing hell with the new members of the faculty at Oxford. How it is I know not, yet I hear the institution is going down-— only one hundred students there. In such a state of things I fear the B © n will suffer. I would much rather see the taper blown out for a time than have it fed with unclean material.” In the Beta Theta P i for September, 1889, Founder Samuel T . Marshall published his recollections of David Linton, who died in Pleasanton, Kan sas, August 10, 1889. He wrote: “ Leaf by leaf the roses fall.”

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M y acquaintance with the Honorable David Linton began at Miami Uni versity about the fall of 1836. He came from Clinton County, Ohio, and entered the class with John Reily Knox. Mr. Linton very soon attracted the attention of the professors and students by his steady habits and clear head and mature judgment. He was some years older than most of his class. He was a Quaker, and his religious training was of that quiet, thinking, orderly society, but he soon dropped into the common speech of his class. He gave great prom inence to reason in his religious code, and would say, “ I must bring all things to the tribunal of reason, and by that test alone I am guided.” W e some times called him our “ silent philosopher,” because he talked but little, but his judgment was very mature even in boyhood. And when on the play grounds, where all was noise and loud talk and fuss, he seldom said a word, but laughed almost continuously. Although Mr. Linton talked so little, he was the leading debater and the best reasoner in the literary hall. The professors had all confidence in him. In the classroom as well as out he had a singularly just mind, and all his instincts pointed to truth and the right. Even when he was in the junior class he was noted for his literary attainments, and in his mathematics he left no question or problem un solved. He seldom read any fiction and looked upon the novel as lost labor. Mr. Linton was most genial and social in his disposition and his deport ment was faultless. He was always respectful in a high'degree to his superiors, inferiors, and equals. In common conversation he seldom de murred or contradicted his opponent, but he answered with a laugh, and we all knew that when he listened and laughed, he did not agree with the speaker. He laughed his opponent out of court. He was a “ laughing philosopher.” He not only kept up with his class but studied law. He read Blackstone’s Commentaries twice during his college course. Mr. Linton was an able lawyer, and when elected to the bench in Kansas he was greatly liked, and it is reported that he filled the office of judge not only well, but he sat with out a superior in that county. Had Mr. Linton been a politician, he could have had the highest office in the state. But he was hopelessly honest (as politicians say) and never countenanced success or victory gained by any indirection, and was the most open foe to corruption and intolerance. Mr. Linton was a true man in every department of life, and deserved well of his country. He made but little noise among his neighbors and was content to do his duty in silence. His loss is irreparable to his family, and his place can not be easily filled in the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and the State is not as strong as before his death. Let the fraternity pass resolu tions befitting the occasion and send them to the bereaved family. Y et no resolutions or words of ours' can gild a grief like theirs. He was a good man and great. “ The glories of our birth and state Are shadows, not substantial things. There is no armor against fate. Death lays his icy hand on Kings. Scepter and crown Must tumble down And in the dust be equal made W ith the poor crooked scythe and spade.”

JAMES GEORGE SMITH

JAMES GEORGE SMITH Reverend James Smith, a pioneer Baptist preacher, came from Virginia to Ohio in 1798 and died near Cincinnati, July 28, 1799, several years before the State of Ohio was admitted to the Union. His oldest son was Thomas Smith, who was born in Powhatan County, Virginia, June 19, 1783, and died in Warren County, Ohio, August 17, 1841. Thomas Smith married in Warren County, Ohio, February 6, 1817, Mary Whitehill, who was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, October 19, 1788, and died in Warren County, Ohio, August 28, 1849, f rom epidemic fever. She was the daughter of Joseph Whitehill, a Revolutionary soldier of Lan caster County, Pennsylvania, who died in Fincastle, Virginia, on March 20, 1808, having lived in that place for eight years. From this union came six children who lived to maturity. Joseph W hitehill Smith, born April 20, 1818, died September 27, 1841, unmarried. He was a student at Miami University for a few months but withdrew on account of failing health. James George Smith, born August 20, 1819, died September 16, 1849, unmarried. Graduated from Miami University, 1840. A Founder of Beta Theta Pi. John Quincy Smith, born November 5, 1824, died December 30, 1901. H e was a student at Miami University for a short time. He was a prominent citizen o f Ohio for many years, serving as state senator, member of congress, commissioner of Indian A ffairs and United States consul general at Montreal, Canada. H e left a fam ily of children and grandchildren. W illiam F. Smith, born March 14, 1826, died in H enry County, Ohio, July 11, 1867, leaving one child who died young. M ary Jane Smith, born January 8, 1828, died in Clinton County, Ohio, January x, 1903. In 1854 she married Moses N. Collett and had four children who grew to m aturity., Thomas Edwin Smith, born A ugust 16, 1832, died in Paola, Kansas, M ay 21, 1900. He married, January 19, 1859, Maria M cKay. T hey had eight children, the eldest now living, being Miss Edith W . Smith of Denver, Colorado. D uring the Civil W ar he was captain o f Company H., Seventy-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

Founder Smith was of Huguenot descent, his French immigrant ancestor being Sir Antoine Trabue, who came to Virginia in 1700 and lived at Manakintown on the James River about eighteen miles above Richmond, dying there in 1723. Some of his brilliancy of mind and charm of manner was part of the inheritance of our founder. A fter graduating from Miami, Founder Smith planned to study law, but he had to abandon this ambition because of impaired health. H e made two trips in search of physical strength. The first, in the fall and winter of 1841-1842, was to the Gulf Coast of Florida. He and a cousin, George E. Smith, made the journey on horseback and both were much benefited. In 1843 with an uncle and a cousin from Lebanon, Ohio, again on horseback, he made his second journey, this time visiting the old home of his grandfather, Reverend James Smith, in Powhatan County, Virginia. This cousin, who was a student at Miami contemporary with Founder Smith, was James M. Smith. It was to distinguish the two cousins, “James Smith” that the family nick name “Jimmy George” came into use. The two were double cousins, were about the same age, and were close friends. The home of Founder Smith was on a farm about six miles east of Lebanon and about three miles south of Waynesville, which was the post office used by him. The accompanying picture shows the house in which

BETA LORE he lived in manhood s years and where he died, his birth being in a log cabin near by on the same farm. The cemetery in which he is buried is wellkept. The inscription upon his monument reads: Here lie the remains of J A M E S G E O R G E S M IT H Son of Thomas and M ary Whitehill Smith He was born August 20, A.D . 1819 and died September 16, 1849

Miss Edith W . Smith of Denver, Colorado, niece of Founder Smith, interested family historian and genealogist, placed at the disposal of the fraternity all her available material, including a picture of Founder Smith’s

H O M E O F F O U N D E R S M IT H

home, a notebook kept by him at “ Old Miami,” and some letters written him in the first years of the existence of Beta Theta Pi. One of these is in the handwriting of Founder Charles Henry Hardin and gives in detail the changes made in 1840 in the first Constitution of the Fraternity. Her courtesy and her interest have been notable. O f “ Jimmy George” she wrote: “ I have heard about him all my life and have always taken an interest in him, as he was my father’s favorite brother and was greatly beloved by a large circle of relatives and friends. He died of a fever after a short illness and only a few days after the death of his mother from the same fever of which there was an epidemic in their neighorhood. It was in the early autumn of 1849. I have heard that the doctor who attended him said that he thought Uncle James’ life could have been saved excepting for his grief and shock over his mother’s death........... He

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was a beautiful and high-minded character, and I wish I had words to do him justice. His early death was considered an irreparable loss by his sister and surviving brothers.” Miss Smith had in her family archives, beside the college notebook and Beta letters already mentioned, several papers in Founder Smith’s hand writing, some of them apparently short addresses delivered in the Union Literary Society, in whose hall the first formal meeting of Beta Theta Pi was held on August 8, 1839. The notebook is a small one, possibly eight inches by seven, and half an inch thick. It contains exercises in mathematics and in Greek, which was a favorite study. An expense account has some items, so eloquent of the simplicity and economies of college life at the time of the founding of Beta Theta Pi that they are reproduced: “ Paid for passage to Oxford, $2.75; for the Oedipus of Sophocles, $1.25; for bacheloring materials, $15.00; for matches, 12^2 cents; for table cover, 8 7 ^ c .; for Y\ cord of wood, 37^2 c .; for one towel, 50 c .; for wash ing for Ferd’n’d, 25 c.; for Union L it erary Society, $10.00; for Union Literary Society, $2.00; for cutting hair, 25 c .; for candy, 50 c .; for one pair pumps, $2.50; for father to D. McAlister, $23.7*5 > f ° r crackers, et cetera, on the road, 25 c .; for hire of horse, $2.00; to Mr. Wampler, $3.00; to Mr. Lowes for boarding, $20.00; on book store account, $6.00; for tuition fee, $12.00; for ex penses on the road home, 50 c.” These were the expenses for “ the summer session of 1839” which ended August 13, five days after the first formal meeting of Beta Theta Pi was held. The $3.00 to Mr. Wampler was for money borrowed, as shown by a table or receipts. Those surely are interesting items which relate to the Union Literary Society and to the “ pair of pumps.” Who “ Ferdi nand” was does not appear. The item for “ bacheloring materials” F O U N D E R S M IT H ’S G R A V E is illuminating. Many a Student boarded himself in college, and it was quite common to have a “ chum”— people now would say “ buddy”— in such economies. A t one time Smith’s partner was I. Thompson, who paid in $17.16 for materials, Smith paying $15.76 and also 25c for sugar and sage. A t another time the chum was I. W . Haines. The expense account “ for the firm of Haines and Smith” is given : “ For one table, $2.00; for one washstand, $2.00; for washbowl, glass, et cetera, $1.00; for chairs, etc., $1.00; for bacheloring implements, $2.00; for bedstead and cord, $ 4 .12 ^ ; for mending saw et cetera, 5^34 c- ’> f ° r washing, $1.25; for corn meal, 62}^ c .; for wood in the wood-house, 27^2 c .; paid to the bake woman, $1.00; paid Baker for bread and butter, 83^4 c.; paid bake woman and her son, 37/^2 c .; paid Mr. Turner for cutting wood, 25 c .; paid Markle & Lathrop, $5.00 each, $10.00.”

BETA LORE The mending of the saw and the payment for cutting wood are reminders of a feature of college life which was common in western colleges for more than forty years after Beta Theta Pi was founded. College rooms were heated by stoves and each student or each pair of “ chums” had to cut up the stove-size wood, week by week. So also the lowly item of “ corn meal” must not be overlooked, for mush and milk was a standard dish for many a student of the forties. The $4.12^ bedstead was sold after ward for $2.00 to John Scott and a new one bought at $ 4 . 1 2 ^ 2 , for use in “ winter session, 1839-40.” Here the expenses included items for one pOcket Bible, $ 1.12 ^ ; for drugs, 12 ^ c; for postage, 12^2 c; and 37^2 c .; and 1.00 for corn meal. The record book tells the literary tastes of our founder, who drew out, either from the college library— this through a professor— or from the library of the Union Literary Society: Locke’s essays, Phillips’ speeches, British Poets, History of the Bible, Brown’s Philosophy, Scott’s Demonology, Burns’ Works, Niles Register, and an encyclopedia. One might linger longer over this blank book of Founder Smith. It con tains his account as treasurer of Union Literary Society, texts of sermons preached at Oxford, digests of books read, outlines or exact text of speeches made, rules for Greek, formulas for mathematics, besides the unending in terest of accounts— for filling his bedtick with straw, 3 7 ^ c .; for a hair cut, 123/2 c . ; for one chicken, \2,y2 c .; for crape, 37>4 c .; for toll, 25 c .; for tavern bill, $1.. 25; for one Index Rerum, $2. 50; for bear’s oil, 25 c .; for milk, 62^2 c. Conclusions seem justified, that Founder Smith was prudent and eco nomical, that he was generous and helpful— for there are frequent entries showing loans of $2.00, $3.00 or more— that he was studious, that he was thoughtful and serious, that he was fond of Greek and Greek literature, that he played his part in “ college activities,” that he liked to read poetry and philosophy, that his heavy boots were sometimes laid aside for pumps. Among the papers preserved by Miss Smith is an invitation to attend the Miami Commencement of 1840 sent by Founder Smith to his father. The letter throws much light upon the closing ceremonials of the time, men tions Oliver S. Witherby as one of the orators and, incidentally, calls atten tion to a political speech before the Hickory Club by Taylor Marshall. The year was that of the famous “ Tippecanoe” Campaign, when the song was, O have you heard the great commotion— motion-motion, T he country through? It is the ball a rolling on F or Tippecanoe and T yler too, A nd with them we will beat little V an— V an-V an is a used-up man And with them we will beat little Van.

The Hickory Club, named for “ Old Hickory” Andrew Jackson, was for Van Buren, the Buckeye Club was for Harrison. But let Founder Smith’s letter tell its own story: Miami University, August the 2nd, 1840. M

D ear F

ath er:

I have fo r several days past deferred writing, intending to prepare you quite a lengthy letter today, and dispatch it by tomorrow’s mail. But, unfortunately, my old acquaintance the “ H ives” made an attack upon me yesterday afternoon, made me

JAMES GEORGE SMITH quite unwell all night and left a headache and feverish feeling to torment me today. I have scarce resolution to attempt a letter under the circumstances; but as the mail of tomorrow is the only one that will carry any word to you in time fo r you to come to the “winding-up” I must not entirely neglect the opportunity. I wrote to Joseph a few days since stating precisely when the Commencement performances would commence; so that there might be no mistake. The “Alpha Delta Phi” Society is addressed on Tuesday afternoon by the Reverend Mr. Perkins of Cincinnati; the Miami Society on Tuesday evening by Bishop Purcell; the graduates o f the three societies on Wednesday morning by Mr. Temple o f the E. Society; Mr. W itherby of the U. L. Society and Mr. Folsom of the M. Society. The anniver sary address to the U. L. Society will be delivered on W ednesday afternoon by Professor M cA rthur; the Erodelphian Anniversary is to be delivered on W ednesday night by the Reverend Mr. Moffit. On Thursday morning the alumni of the univer sity will hear an address from Charles Anderson, Esq. of Dayton. A fte r all o f which Dr. Bishop will give us the baccalaureate and hand out diplomas to those who are deemed worthy to receive them. The examinations o f our class all closed on Thursday last. For my own part fortune favored me and I passed the ordeal (in my own opinion) quite respectably. In fact the whole class stood a very respectable examination. W e are now free from college duties! I thought somewhat o f coming home (his week, but as my health is delicate, I will give over the idea and employ myself in reading. Smith made a political speech before the H ickory Club on last Monday evening! T aylor Marshall addresses them tomorrow night. M y room-mate is now engaged in manufacturing a performance to give to the boys at the Buckeye Cabin on next Thursday evening. ’T w ill be a scorcher! I want you, if possible, to come oyer to the commencement and bring mother along. I think she would enjoy the visit; and then I want her to see the place where I have spent two years of my life so that, when I wish to talk o f the place hereafter she may take the more interest in the conversation. T ell John Thompson that his friends all expect him and will be sadly disappointed if he does not attend! Can’t you bring Tom m y with you? I wish you to bring my trunk with you, and be sure you do not forget a blank book that I left in it. It is the property of a fellow student. Don’t forget i t ! I suppose you had a fine meeting at W aynesville on yesterday— ’twas reported here that Southgate was to be there! I f such was the case you doubtless had a fine treat, fo r he is said to be surpassingly good upon the stump. I intended to make an estimate yesterday evening of what I was owing and send you an account o f it, but owing to my attack of the “nettle rash” I could not do it. I will require a considerable amount to square all up— the ordinary expenses are increased during the last session by the price of diplomas, which amounts to ten dollars. I expect money is very hard to procure, but if it would be possible for you to bring me sufficient to pay all I owe, I could quit Miami with a lighter heart and a hope that the time is nigh at hand when I may. begin to -make up fo r such a long season of expenditure. M y love to all the family. I will expect you on Tuesday evening! Don’t forget the book and trunk. I do not speak at the close. Y ours “ ratherish unwell.” J. G. S m i t h Thomas Smith, Waynesville, Warren Co., Ohio.

This letter is dated August 2, but on the address side it bears the postoffice stamp “ Oxford, Ohio, August 1.” It is a four page holograph, with out envelope of course, but folded neatly with a red wax seal as fastener. Written before the common use of postage stamps it has 10 upon the upper right hand corner to indicate the postage fee. On the address side are also the words “ M ail” and “ In Haste.” Perhaps the latter pioneer “ special delivery” suggestion was for the benefit of the home-town postmaster. Miss Smith says of this letter, “ I have been told that the invitation to the Commencement was accepted and that ‘father and mother/ accompanied

BETA LORE by one one or more of the younger children, drove over to Oxford. ‘Tommy’ who was included in the invitation was my father, Thomas Edward Smith, aged at that time eight years lacking fourteen days. I hope he was there. James’ mother took a lively interest in all the affairs of her five sons from the oldest, Joseph, down to Tommy. Their affection, admiration, and respect for her had absolutely no bounds. The distance from home to O xford was something like thirty miles, more rather than less than that, by the roads which they had to travel.” Founder Samuel Taylor Marshall said that Smith was the third one in the fraternity, K nox and he asking Smith to join. Knox names Hardin as the third, but there is no doubt Smith was considered from the start. Forty or fifty years later Marshall described Smith thus: “ He was a pale, studious, quiet fellow, in delicate health. I never saw such an eater in my life and he never took physical exercise. Whatever lessons he prepared he understood and could parse to the last single letter and word. He never forgot to be a gentleman, but took no pride in dress, although well-off financially.” It is a matter of great regret that no picture of Founder Smith is available. Apparently he never had one taken. Only from his account book and his letters can we catch a glimpse of his personality. Founder John Reily Knox wrote in 1873, “ The members present at the first meeting of the order were Brothers Marshall, Linton, Smith J. G., (Poor Leb! as good a fellow as ever lived, he died young) and myself.” And perhaps that’s a good place to leave “ Jimmy George,” as tender memories touched Pater Knox, when he thought of the beginnings, “ Poor L eb!. .. .he died young.”

CHARLES HENRY HARDIN Charles Henry Hardin was born on a farm in the northern part of Trimble County, Kentucky, July 15, 1820. He was the son of Charles and Hannah (Jewell) Hardin, his mother being a sister of Dr. William Jewell, o f Columbia, Missouri, whose name was given to the college at Liberty, Missouri. His father died when he was ten years old, and this uncle, who always called him “ Henry,” became in many ways like a father to the lad. He spent his childhood in Columbia, where he attended the public schools. His mother trained him early and most carefully in business methods, making him assume responsibilities usually assigned to those much older. A t seventeen, not finding in Missouri the desired opportunities for higher education, he rode horseback to Bloomington, Indiana, to enter the prepara tory department of Indiana University. He spent the years 1837 and 1838 and part of 1839 in that institution. In March, 1839, with a letter of honor able dismission, he went to Oxford, Ohio, to enroll in Miami University. At Indiana he distinguished himself for unusual ability in Latin, winning extravagant praise from his instructor. Right at the start of his Miami career, he began a practice of writing out carefully his speeches, one of them, delivered on March 8, 1839, being preserved. It is in good literary style and may have been the thing which first called him to the attention of one of the seniors of that year, John Reily Knox, who, about that

CHARLES H EN R Y HARDIN time, was planning the organization of a rival fraternity to Alpha Delta Phi. He seems to have given quite a number of such orations before he graduated from Miami on July 13, 1841. The encouragement he received and his own spirit at Miami are well illustrated by two extracts. One is from a letter written him by his uncle, Dr. Jewell: “ Henry, the emphatic question is, are you studying hard? Are you striving with almost agonizing efforts to lay deep and broad the founda-

C H A R L E S H E N R Y H A R D IN , Miami ’41 Pictures of Founder Hardin, taken in different years, are much the same in appearance.

tion for future respectability and usefulness? The substance of the matter, the whole matter, is, that it becomes you, having the fires of an honorable ambition burning in your bosom, the love of country, of usefulness, of dis tinction, as also of filial piety (which will admonish you that you owe a debt you can scarcely hope ever to be able adequately to pay) to incite you in your onward course in virtue and knowledge to strain every nerve, to be untiring in every proper endeavor to preeminently qualify you for the early assumption of the active duties of life.” The other extract is from a diary, which he began to keep on March 5, 1840. It is dated October 24, 1840:

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“ The past week I have been quite close in my reading and application to my studies, but shall improve upon it in the approaching one. My time is wholly employed in reading or studying, save when a friend steps in and claims my attention. I visit no one for the sake of company; hence it is my feeling that no one call on me, unless he can teach me, or learn something from me. A man has no right to steal one’s time— to bore him until he that is visited fairly writhes in his seat. I take this oppor tunity to warn all young men who shall come after me to beware of the bore: the idle, heedless and unmeaning man.” The result of such encouragement and such spirit was that Brother Hardin ranked eighth in his class of twenty-four members, having a grade of 94 in scholarship and of 98 in general character. In 1841 he took up the study of law with Honorable James M. Gordon, of Columbia, Missouri, and was admitted to the bar on March 11, 1843, being licensed by Judge William Scott, of the Missouri Supreme Court. He had already opened a law office in Fulton, Missouri, in February. He practiced in this county seat for eighteen years when he moved to Mexico in Audrain County, in or near which he made his home the rest of his life. He retired from practice in 1871, devoting his remaining years to farming. “ While in practice he was an indefatigable student. He believed and often so expressed himself, that a lawyer could not read the elementary" books of the law too o ften ; that he ought to read the prime elementary books not less than once a year carefully and thoughtfully, and more fre quently if possible.” In August, 1848, he was elected circuit attorney for the second judicial district of Missouri and held the position for four years, during which period no indictment prepared by him was ever quashed or held invalid by the courts, nor did he ever fail to attend the courts, although the terms were very numerous and the traveling then laborious. In 1852, 1854 and 1858, he was elected representative from Callaway County in the State legislature. In 1855, though a W hig and the legislature Democratic, he was elected one of three to revise and codify the statute laws of the state, and, later, was appointed commissioner to index, annotate, and superintend the printing of the code. In i860 and again in 1872 he was elected state senator. In 1862 he was put under bonds and sub sequently disfranchised because of alleged sympathy for the Confederate States, although the record shows that he was the only senator who voted against the secession of Missouri. The partisan bitterness in Missouri in 1861 was intense. Hardin seems to have given up his law practice and to have retired to a farm during the war. Calloway County, Missouri, of which Fulton was the county seat, has a unique war history. It “ seceded” by itself and was called in ridicule “The Kingdom of Callo way.” A t a later time, when a candidate for office, Founder Hardin’s chances were reported by a correspondent as good “ although he was a Union man.” In 1874 he was elected governor of Missouri on the Democratic ticket by a majority of some 38,000. It is worth noting, as indicative of the different elements in the old W hig party, that, while John Reily Knox, a Whig, cast his political influence with the new Republican party, brother Hardin, a Southern Whig, followed many of his party associates into the Democratic fold. His administration of the gubernatorial office was a very successful one. Senator Vest once said of him : “ I can truthfully say

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that, among all the public men I have known, Governor Hardin was one of the purest and best. He had some of the best and highest qualities that adorn human nature. He was public-spirited, earnest, courageous and possessed of the best talent in the world, the common sense which is neces sary to success in public and private life.” Another bore tribute, “ No blot rests upon his official career and history will record it as one of the model ™ administrations of this great commonwealth.” His other activities included the chairmanship of the Democratic State convention of 1884, membership for ten years on the board of managers of the state lunatic asylum, president of the Mexico Southern Bank for a quarter of a century, trustee of William Jewell College for twenty-two years, founder of Hardin Female College, at Mexico, and president of its board of trustees for many years, and curator of the University of Missouri.

^Picture by courtesy of the president of Hardin College H A R D IN H A L L Main building of Hardin College, M exico, Missouri.

He was married on May 16, 1844, to Miss M ary Barr Jenkins, daughter of Theodoric and Eliza (Duncan) Jenkins, of Boone County, Missouri. She was a woman o f fine scholarship and was greatly loved by him through out his long life. They had no children. The testimony of acquaintances and his photographs indicate that he was a man of literary tastes rather than one of brawn and muscular en deavor. He never was strong physically and, because of sunstrokes in 1878 and in 1879, he had poor health for some dozen years preceding his death. He traveled widely in search of strength but did not find it. He died in Mexico at half past nine in the morning of July 29, 1892. That same day another Beta governor, David R. Francis, ordered all the state flags at half mast in honor of his memory. The funeral services were held in the chapel of Hardin College, in Mexico, on the following Sunday morning, at ten o’clock, the largest

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assemblage ever seen at a funeral in Mexico being present. Governor Francis was^ one of the speakers, bearing this testimony, “ His deeds are not written in shifting sands. No monument is needed to commemorate his achievements in Missouri. If any were needed, this institution would be sufficient; but his life and character live and will live in the hearts and memories of the people of Missouri.” Another used the apt quotation, To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.” In an address on another occasion, a minister of the Baptist church, to which communion he belonged, closed an eloquent tribute with the words, “ N o more oppressed H is earthly race is run. That kindly touch T hat felt and cared for mankind so much T hat light that lit his manly, genial face, T hat spirit washed and saved by Sovereign Grace Has passed from earth unto its higher place, And all is rest.”

Founder Hardin’s body was buried beneath a pear tree near the garden gate on his farm, the site having been selected by himself. Two years later it was removed to Columbia, Missouri, and given final interment in the Jewell Cemetery near that city. This cemetery is situated on the road, leading from Columbia, Missouri, to Providence, and is about three miles south of Columbia. The ground covers about half an acre on the top of a ridge sloping slightly to the north. It is a beautiful spot. It is walled all around, with a single gateway over which is a cast-iron tablet reading, “No one not the husband, w ife or child of a descendant of George Jewell can be buried here. See record book i, page 103.” In side, directly in front of the gate, is Governor Hardin’s grave by the side of his w ife’s. The monument can be seen through the gateway. None of the graves have raised mounds. On the monument is the inscription: “ In memory of C h a r l e s H . H a r d i n , Christian statesman, philanthro pist. A s lawyer, legislator, state senator, and governor faithfully he dis charged his duty. In 1880 he laid down at the feet of Jesus all his earthly honors and attached himself to the Baptist Church. When the summons came for him to enter the church triumphant gladly he obeyed and now rests on that bright shore where alone peace sheds her light and one long day undimmed by night. Farewell for a little while, Mary. July 15, 1820July 29, 1892.” A story about the cemetery and about a Beta pilgrimage to it is printed in Beta Theta P i for January, 1911, pp. 195-200. It was written by Gurdon G. Black, Washington, whose companions on the trip were Brothers Van Brunt, Tate, Roth, Krause and Rodgers. They visited the spot after a District Reunion at Columbia. Black also secured a number of copies of the L ife and Writings of Governor Charles Henry Hardin, by Mary Barr Hardin, his wife, and presented a copy to each of the chapters of District X II of which he was the efficient Chief. In this book are the following Beta letters of special interest: “ Monroe, Ohio, Nov. 11, 1843 “ M y d e a r H a r d in : “ I know that I am hasty in imposing again upon your good nature, but before I close this sheet, perhaps I shall touch upon a theme which may

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form some valid show of excuse in so soon writing. I have just returned from Cincinnati whither I went a few days since to mingle in the great concourse of grateful Americans who there assembled to do honor to an old, tried Public Servant. I went to see the wrinkles, and mark that benevo lent countenance of him who is styled the “ Old Man Eloquent.” Yes, Charley, I was present at the laying of the foundation stone of the Cin cinnati Observatory, and heard John Quincy Adams make one of his grand efforts. I always considered him as one of the great men of this earth, one of the master spirits that only appear now and then to show us what the true dignity of man is. Such I believed him to be long ago, when I knew him but by the hearing of the ear. I have seen him, but no disappointment follows as the result of that closer knowledge. I have stood near and drunk in the words he uttered, and could almost think they were the words of inspiration— could almost believe that ‘a voice

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from the dead’ was speaking---could almost realize that one of the fathers of seventy-six was returned to earth and teaching us new lessons of patriot ism, giving us new volumes of political wisdom. Mr. Adams spoke for three hours and instead of showing signs of weariness or fatigue, he seemed to become more youth-like and vigorous until his close; his face flushing up with the warm heart’s blood, and his mild eye lighting up with a something more than human brightness. “ Now on my last page I must touch on the topic for which I began this epistle. I learn from John Dubois, Oxford, that they have elected you as the speaker of the coming August commencement, to address the graduates of the present Senior class. I am rejoiced to hear it, and although you are written to by the corresponding secretary, who is your sincere friend, I cannot rest satisfied until I add my earnest wish that you will accept the invitation. This has ever been the desire of my inmost soul, that you should address a class as soon as circumstances would permit to call you back. That wish is now accomplished, and I ask by all the ties of old friendship, that you will not allow any minor impediment to prevent your

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presence next fall. What makes the election more gratifying is the fact that you came off victorious over a former rival. I heard Reily Knox say, if you were chosen this time as the speaker, or indeed at any time, he would come a hundred miles to hear you; and such, my dear fellow, is the feeling of more than Mr. Knox. So come, come. “ I have filled my paper, but must say in conclusion. May you live till your head is as white as that of John Quincy Adams and your fame as bright and fair. This is the wish of your sincere friend in — kai— ” “ E d. B ruce S teven s”

B E T A S A T F O U N D E R H A R D IN ’S G R A V E

“ Greenville, Ohio, Oct. 2, 1896 “M y

dear

rs.

a r d in

“ I am delighted at the receipt of your letter, as anything from one so dear to Charley Hardin, as we called him at school, necessarily would have that effect. I was in hopes to have seen the Governor again in life, but it was not to be. He was with us in the organization of Beta Theta Pi, and became the most distinguished in life of any of the founders, and when I knew him one of the pleasantest of that group of friends. I am glad that you do not regard me a stranger, Mrs. Hardin. The wife, the widow of one of the Betas of 1839, must always be dear to me. Very truly yours, s “ JN0- R e i l y K n o x ” John Treon Dubois, James Edmund Galloway, James Donaldson Liggett and William Shotwell were the four Betas in the class of 1844 at Miami. There were thirteen members of the class, one of whom was an Alpha Delta Phi, the others non-fraternity men. Brother Dubois died at Carlisle, Ohio, March l i , 1849. The Beta Theta P i for January, 1880, Vol. V II, No. 4, p. 102, mentions a pamphlet of fourteen pages, containing an address on “ Method,” entitled “ Address delivered before the Alpha Chapter of the Beta Theta Pi Society of Miami University, August 10, 1847, by William Shotwell, Hamilton, Ohio.” The Hardin “ L ife ” contains another Beta item, probably unique. It is a speech delivered by Founder Hardin at a Beta initiation on January 31, 1841. It has significance not only as indicating in somewhat rhetorical

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phrase the ideas of the founders, but also as showing how an initiation was conducted in 1841. The Constitution, which then contained the obliga tions and description of the badge, was read, the assent of the candidates to the obligations was secured, a member, presumably the president, made a speech, and then the newly chosen brothers signed the roll attached to the Constitution. In the manuscript the name “ Beta Theta P i” was written in Greek letters, whose place, in the text of the book, is taken by three stars. One paragraph has importance in connection with the discussion about the principal founder. Hardin does not even mention the name of Marshall in an initiation speech describing the ideals of the fraternity and made within two years after Beta Theta Pi was organized. A s Hardin and Marshall were co-founders the name of the latter would have been given emphasis, had he been considered the moving spirit. Instead, as in all contemporary records, the name of Knox appears first. The speech was as follow s: “ Gentlemen: You have heard our Constitution and nodded assent to each binding obligation, thereby accepting badge and membership in the Beta Theta P i ; but before you witness it with your hand, it becomes me to make a few remarks explanatory of its foundations and objects. If we look into the processes and constitution of civil society, we find that its foundations and moral prosperity are based upon a few natural and definite principles o f divine origin. Upon these and none other can this moral fabric of man be erected. They are every way adapted to the capabilities of heart and reason; and so long as they are made the governing land marks of civil action, so long will civil society preserve its wonted purity; so long will virtue and mental exercise sustain man in the ethereal walks of his intellectual being. “ Such then is the foundation and origin of the Beta Theta Pi. In its existence, moral truth is wholly and fully applied, and, like civil society, its objects are few, plain and simple, every way adapted to the sympathies of the heart and the faculties of the mind. The great principle, then, that runs through this Constitution, and to which is shaped all the civil pro cedure of this Association, is drawn alone from the unvarying logic of morals and has precedent in the practical communion of every moral and intellectual people. The beauty, elegance and permanency of all civil so ciety depend wholly upon the integrity of its social union and mental culti vation. Here then we assume for the basis of our own secret AssocSttion the vital principle upon which hangs the progress and intellectual great ness of the human race; the mutual fidelity of hearts, the mutual assistance of mind. “ These or similar thoughts filled the minds of those who gave us the charter of our Association. They had lived long enough to experience, that though society could continue happy and prosperous, bound together by a few ligaments of social union and enlightened by a high degree of mental cultivation, yet all these blessings did not secure to each individual that moral being and intellectual pleasure which the God of nature seems to have given him the capacity to sustain. They had passed a few short years within the shade of college and, mingling freely with its inmates, found that youth, though noble, generous and honorable, were more susceptible of faction and other corrupt and selfish principles of human nature than they were of virtue and mental acquisition.

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“ They found that young men of every intensity of feeling, of every various talent, of every scale of improvement, were without any common tie, and mutual confidence of fidelity, without any private, combined effort to promote one virtue of the heart or one special object of mind. Being in such a state, and going forth into the world without some moral re straint, they would soon catch the weakness of human society and their feelings and magnanimities would become lost amid the confusion of men. “ Experience became a teacher of moral lessons and, fearing the general prostituting influence of the world, Knox, Linton, Gordon and others modeled our Constitution upon the vital principle, that private, refined friendship and mutual illumination of mind far better ennobled the aspira tions of heart and elevated the expanding powers of reason. “ Their social exchange of feeling and sentiment was found good and they called to the same bond of union others with ourselves, and, as it were, bequeathed to us this form, soul and sensation. With that same love of other hearts and other minds, we invite you to a par-excellence with ourselves; we invite you to subscribe to this charter of our brother hood and welcomely to gather around our fond altar of fidelity and friend ship. “ In the dismal solitude of a distant isle of the sea, Juan Fernandez bemoaned his unhappy exile, and, feeling the want of man’s social counte nance, he cried in the gloom of his soul, ‘O tell me I have a friend.’ This seemed to be the sacred request of his despairing heart, the longing, longing information of his fast pining frame. Then, when you shall go forth upon the sea of life, breathing amidst uncertainties and acting amid dangers, if the solemn expression should arise, ‘Have I a friend?’ be assured upon the candor of my soul, you have. Should despondency and despair, those flesh-cankering diseases, afflict you or should you when wrecked upon the horrid shoals of death, with hasty breathing, inquire, ‘Have I a friend?’ remember and rely upon the honest accents of my voice, You have. “ W ith these remarks, and knowing, gentlemen, that you are every way worthy and every way qualified to the noble discharge of those duties herein prescribed, in behalf of these and other friends, I welcome you to all the rights and privileges of the Beta Theta Pi.” TlVo stories about Governor Hardin are added. One is told by H. A. Trexler, Whitman ’o6, who relates: “ M y first teaching position was at Hardin College for Young Women at Mexico, Missouri. This institution was endowed by Charles Henry Hardin, Miami ’41, some fifty years ago. Brother Hardin was one of Missouri’s greatest citizens. He was compiler of the State Code of 1855» served in the legislature for years, and was governor in the seventies. He lies buried beside his kinsman, Dr. William Jewell, another college founder, in the little rural family cemetery a couple of miles from the campus of the University of Missouri. . . . “ During my first week at Hardin College the president of the institution told me the following anecdote: Once while Mr. Hardin was governoi, the legislature appropriated $20,000 for a building at one of the state institu tions. Some time later the contractors and architect came to the governor with a plan of the building with a tower added. They insisted that the

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tower would add greatly to the artistic beauty of the edifice and argued that it would cost $5,000 more. But the Governor concluded that the tower was the graft in the contract, so he went over to his desk, found a ruler and a red pencil and drew a line in red to cut off the tower. ‘Gentle men,’ said he, ‘I shall not endeavor to induce the legislature to increase this appropriation. W e shall have just $20,000 dollars worth of buildings.’ “ May this honesty and public conscience on the part of one of our founders be an example to the fraternity which he helped to plan!” The other story was told by a writer to “The Voice of the People” in the Chicago Tribune of January 24, 1925, who had been called in question for asserting that prayer is a good thing as an aid for growing crops and came back with the following, “ Since the publication of my letter, Pro■ fessor John H. Collins, former superintendent of instruction at SpringI field, Illinois, wrote me that years ago when he lived in Missouri the Kansas grasshopper began invading Missouri. People were wild with terror and called on Governor Hardin to issue a call for a day of prayer to pro tect their crops from this pest. It was done and the plague ceased at once.”

JOHN HOLT DUNCAN The records of Miami University1 state that John Holt Duncan, a member of the class of 1840, was born in Harrison County, Kentucky, July 7, 1820. Charles Henry Hardin, co-founder with him of Beta Theta Pi, wrote of him :2 “ John Holt Duncan was born and raised in the state of Mississippi but spent his public life in Texas, serving the state some twenty-five years of his life in various offices, mostly of a judicial character. He was a man of special dignity of person and character, was a good student, ex tremely courteous and graceful in his intercourse with others, and very acceptable to and popular with the people.” Samuel Taylor Marshall’s impression of Duncan is thus indicated :3 “John Holt was a Southerner, the best dressed boy in the class, and the best appearing young gentleman in the whole college. But he couldn’t study mathematics. In other departments he stood well.” A fter graduating from Miami, Brother Duncan studied law and began its practice in Houston, Texas. He served as the chief-justice of Bexar County, Texas, from 1857 to 1862. The next year he spent as an artillery captain in the Confederate States’ Army. He then became a district judge, serving till 1865. He was city attorney in Houston from 1877 to 1879.4 His brother, Robert Duncan, graduated from Miami in the class of 1837. He was a member of Alpha Delta Phi.5 It is not known just when Duncan was invited to join in the movement to establish Beta Theta Pi. His name appears sixth in the list in the precise and formal minutes of the first regular meeting of the Alpha chapter, held 1 Alumni Catalogue o f Miami University, Centennial Edition, 1909, p. 35. 2 Quoted in the Beta Theta P i, November, 1889, Vol. X V II, No. 2, p. 58. 3 See in this volume, p. 156. 4See B aird: Betas o f Achievement, p. 102. 5 Alumni Catalogue o f Miami University, Centennial Edition, 1909, p. 25. Robert Duncan was a lawyer in Fayette, Mississippi. He died during the Confederate war.

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in the hall of the Union Literary Society on August 8, 1839. He was chosen first president of the chapter, and, at this first meeting, delivered an inaugural address.6 Founder Duncan spent his life far from the scene of the fraternity’s development. He was lost from sight for quite a period. He died May 27, 1896, in the Confederate Old Soldiery Home in Austin, Texas. So little was known of him, however, that the report ,of a Convention com mittee on necrology included him among the dead of the year 1887.7 The following letter may be the only one in existence in which his recollections of the days at “ old Miami” and the boys of 1839 are related. Like some of the memories of other founders they seem faulty in details. But the communication is highly prized by the fraternity as an original document of great value.8 Houston, Texas, June 21, 1875. D ear B ro th er :

I have been unavoidably delayed in answering your letter. It was truly a pleasant surprise. L iving in the other end o f the Union, cut off almost entirely from my old college mates and classmates, I had almost forgotten our old fraternity. But with your letter all came back. W ell do I remember “ Old Dave Linton,” as we used to call him, standing up and reading the constitution on being reported by the Convention.9 W e rather looked up to him as the Patriarch o f the family.10 And well do I remember, too, Marshall K n ox (R e ily), Gordon, Smith, Hardin, Ryan (M ike, as we used to call him), I loved the man as I did an elder brother; and Marshall, too. I wonder if he is the same “ m erry cuss” he was in the old time? Give them fo r me a grip of the hand, one which has the pressure of the old time. These memories come through the past like sun rays through the darkness of space. And so you tell me that this society, formed by a half dozen young fellows and in my room there in the house o f the venerable Judge Collins of O xford 11 and at midnight12 (fo r you must know there was at Miami, then, a bit of prejudice against secret societies),13 that this society has spread like the banyan tree of the Indus, and 6The Alpha chapter carefully treasures the old red minute book, keeping it in a safe deposit vault in O xford, Ohio. The minutes of the first meeting are quoted in Shepardson: The Beta Book, p. 6. 7 See report in the Beta Theta P i, November, 1889, Vol. X V II, No. 2, p. 58. 8 Published in the Beta Theta P i, January, 1876, Vol. I l l , No. 1. 8“ Old Dave Linton” was five years older than Duncafi. H e graduated in 1839, five years before the first Convention was held. W hat was in founder Duncan’s mind may have been the feature of the first meeting thus described, “David Linton, who had previously been appointed to prepare a suitable address for the occasion, dis charged the duty developing upon him in an essay upon the first, and an extempore address upon the last words of the motto.” 10 This sentence is pleasing in its suggestion. Each founder whose testimony is preserved seems to have had a special thought for some one individual of this strong chapter group. Here Founder Duncan brings tribute to “ Old Dave Linton” as the Patriarch. A s a matter of fact Linton was three years younger than Marshall. Dun can calls Marshall a “m erry cuss.” Marshall says that he was often in trouble with the faculty.’ Linton was a quiet, dignified, man, as befitted his Quaker origin. 11 This claim fo r Duncan’s room as the place of origin o f the fraternity is in teresting. It is • not supported by any other testimony. I f he was the sixth man chosen, o f course, the initial meetings were held elsewhere, no doubt in the rooms of Marshall and K nox. A t the same time Duncan must have had in his mind some im portant gathering in his own room at “ low twelve.” 32 “ The outside world is wrapped in sleep No Barbaros is nigh, A s we these midnight vigils keep O f Beta Theta Pi.” 13 A lfre d H Upham says in his Old Miami, the Yale of the Early West, in telling the beginning of Alpha Delta P h i: “ The first activities of the baby chapter were en

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that hundreds are glad in its “pleasant places!” I can scarcely realize it. A sk Dave Linton and the others if we are to be held responsible for this numerous progeny; if, speaking with all reverence, we are to be held the veritable successors of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, i.e., fathers of a great race.14 I regret extremely that I cannot be with you at the approaching Convention.15 But surely I am heartily with you in the good you will feel and in all the good you will accomplish. I am unable to give any definite information as to Gordon. He and his elder brothers, Elbert and Neil, were from Georgia. A fte r graduating, the latter two became theological students in the seminary presided over by Mr. Claybaugh (that was the name I believe), then located in Oxford. It may be that some minister contem porary with them, or remembering them, or knowing them, or o f the same persua sion, can tell you something of them and so of Tom. His name was Thomas Boston Gordon.

T H E S O L D IE R S H O M E A T A U S T IN

tirely in the dark. It was getting its eyes open, so to speak. Nine members were enrolled before even the existence of the thing was revealed. Then the president of the university who had a pious horror of all secret societies, was asked one day to read an announcement of one o f their meetings. Laboriously he spelled it out, ‘the Alpha and Delta and Phi Society,’ and his hostile suspicions were aroused from that moment. This feeling apparently was one of the few things passed on to Dr. Junkin, for in the last year of his brief administration the latter issued a written protest to the trustees against the existence of the Alphas. The board investigated these young terrors, but failed to find anything incriminating or unorthodox,” pp. 101-102. 14 Founder Duncan probably never heard the song, “ H ere’s a health to Pater Knox, boys, And them of Thirty-nine, And the sons who follow after them In long illustrious line.” * The Convention o f 1875 was held in Evansville, Indiana.

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With all good wishes to the Society and the Convention, and the old remem brances to those old friends, and kindly assurances to yourself, I am very truly and fraternally, j j J no. H . D

uncan

Our most intimate knowledge of Founder Duncan comes from the following letter written by a nephew, Duncan H. Chamberlain, to Francis W . Shepardson: „ . TI. , Brookhaven, Mississippi, September i, 1924. rrancis IV. Shepardson, Chicago, Illinois. D e a r S i r : I am in receipt o f your letter forwarded from Canonsburg, Mis sissippi, inquiring if I could supply any information on the history of Judge John H olt Duncan. H e was born at Cynthiana, Kentucky, and came to Mississippi with his parents in 1820. H e lived in Mississippi from that time till he removed to San Antonio, Texas,

W H E R E F O U N D E R D U N C A N S L E E P S W IT H C O M R A D E S I think in 1854, practicing law at Fayette, Jefferson County, Mississippi, from his graduation at Miami University and the law school he attended. On the^ outbreak of the Civil W ar he left as captain o f a company of cavalry and fought under General Price all through the Arkansas and Missouri campaigns and was in the battle farthest north on Price’s operations where he was wounded and left behind at a farm house in Missouri. Before the retreat Confederate sur geons amputated his right leg. A few days after the Confederates retreated the Federals found he had been taken in and cared for by this farmer and his family, and promptly took the farmer, stood him up against the barn and riddled his body with bullets, and would have also killed Judge Duncan had it not been for the intercession o f the weeping w ife and children o f the slain farmer. _ They nursed him until his wounds had healed and then smuggled him through into the Con federate lines, then some 200 miles south oi the farm house where he had been taken care of.

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From that time till he became superannuated and went to the Old Soldiers’ Home in Austin, Texas, where he died, he spent every thing he made in caring for and educating the children of the Missouri family who had befriended him and who had lost husband and father because of the humanity they had shown. His father was John Hicks Duncan, born in Petersburg, Virginia, studied medi cine in Philadelphia, and practiced medicine in Jefferson County, Mississippi, until he was eighty years old. H is mother was Miss Paulina Randolph Holt, daughter of M aj. Thomas Holt, who served during the entire period of the Revolutionary W ar, most of the time on L a Fayette’s staff. H e was serving in that capacity at the surrender o f Corn wallis at Yorktow n. His grandfather was a Scotsman, a native of Edinburgh, Scot land, by name of John Duncan. A s to race, he was Scotch-English. The Duncans were Scotch, the Holts were English, being lineal descendants from Sir Thomas Holt, Lord Chief Justice of England in his time. M y uncle was never married. He deemed it his duty to support and educate the children of the man murdered for his sake, and though deeply enamored of a most lovely woman who returned his affection, both denied themselves the pleasure of marriage and children to fulfill what he considered a sacred duty. Judge Duncan was a man of profound learning and ample education, high toned and honorable, honest and irreproachable in character in every respect, and met the assaults of circumstance with cheerfulness and unflinching bravery. He had a keen sense of humor and was a most entertaining companion. I think he was a Mason. His father was very eminent in the order from Apprentice to Royal Arch, Scottish Rite and all the rest, but if Judge Duncan was a Mason he did not rise to any eminence in the fraternity. H owever you can find out by writing to Thomas Hinds Lodge, Fayette, Jefferson County, Mississippi.16 I do not think he ever joined any church. He was, I know, a strong believer in the theory of evolution and was a great admirer of Darwin and H uxley, all of which is foolishly frowned upon by the orthodox; but I do not think the most sanctified professing Christian had a purer character, a higher code o f ethics, or a stricter system of moral philosophy. I am sorry to say I have none of his letters preserved and am uncertain if I can get a photo. If I ever do I will send it to you.17 I trust you may be able to gather a definite idea of the man he was from this letter. Though well aware of my limitations I can say I have done my best to draw his picture and am glad to have been of some little service to you. V e ry truly yours, (Signed) His nephew— D . H. C h a m b e r l a i n

18 The M aster o f this Masonic lodge reports that Founder Duncan was not a member. W hether he joined in T exas is not known. 17 The fraternity has been unable, in many years of effort, to locate a picture of Founder Duncan.

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MICHAEL CLARKSON RYAN Founder Ryan was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, April 23, 1820, and died in Hamilton, Ohio, October 23, 1861, his life span thus being but forty-one years. Both his father and his mother were natives of Lan caster ; the former, Isaac Ryan, a merchant j the latter, Sophia Davis Ryan,

M IC H A E L C L A R K S O N R Y A N , Miami ’39 This picture shows the face of Founder Ryan slightly elongated, the cut being made from a portrait hanging at an angle from the wall.

the grand-daughter of a Swiss noble. She, probably, was of Mennonite an cestry. Founder Ryan’s picture in the Cincinnati chapter house suggests that he must in college days have been handsome above the average. His letters to Pater K nox indicate fondness for the fair sex, particularly for “ the cap tain,” a Miss Lefflar, who was “ literally beseiged by admirers every night in the week” ; but on March 27, 1841, he wrote that “ Wednesday night in mine, and I have kept my engagement every week since January 1, 1841.” Here it may be recorded that such fidelity finally was rewarded; for in 1845 he married Emily Lefflar, only child of William and Margaret Lefflar, also

M IC H A E L C L A R K S O N R Y A N born in Pennsylvania. They had three children, Sophia who died early ; Emma, who married a L ’Hommedieu; and William, who married in Decem ber, i860, a daughter of Dr. Hale, of St. Louis, Missouri. Ryan tried to persuade Knox to locate in Hamilton, telling of the good opening he saw for him at the Butler County bar. In one letter, dis cussing advantages and disadvantages, he referred to the use of liquor by young men, as a temptation Knox would resist. He already had written of Hamilton social life : “ An innovation upon established custom which is extremely popular with the gentlemen is the introduction of wine at all the little parties which are given in town. I raised my voice against the pernicious custom and warned against this departure from temperance and sobriety with all imaginable acrimony, but all to no avail. The seductions of the siren were far more potent than the dictates of propriety.” The interest in politics at the time was keen, the “ Tippecanoe” campaign and the election of Harrison causing great excitement among the Beta found ing fathers, some of whom seem to have changed their political alliances in that upheaval. A s a sidelight upon the disappointment of hungry politicians who hurried to Washington to share the W hig spoils as the long-fed Demo cratic rascals were turned out, Ryan wrote Knox, “ Your friend Major Whitworth has returned from Washington city and swears there were only fifteen vacancies and no less than fifteen thousand applicants to fill them : He says the Old General advised him .to go home and that he should be sent for when wanted, and he thought it was damned good advice and fol lowed it accordingly. He has now withdrawn from the hustle and turmoil.’’ From another letter to Knox a paragraph is taken as it may refer to the Miami student named Swan, who “ knew too much” and had to be given a fake initiation to quiet him : “ I yesterday saw a eulogy upon the character of George Swan, delivered by Jacob Butler before the Miami chapter of the Alpha Delta Phi society. It is one of the best things Jac ever wrote, if not decidedly the best. I will try to procure a copy and send it to you. There is now no doubt that George Swan was a member of the Alpha society.” On April 15, 1840, Ryan wrote K nox a paragraph which reveals the dominant actor in the formative days of the Cincinnati chapter: “ There was a chapter of the Beta Theta Pi society established in Cincinnati during the last vacation. I have not heard the particulars, not even the names of the members. The selection of persons was left to Mr. Paddock with whom I spent a few moments the other day as he passed through here on his way to Oxford. He appeared to be a very companionable fellow and no doubt an ornament to the society.” This letter, by the way, cost ten cents postage from Hamilton, Ohio, to Greenville, Ohio, where Knox lived. It was addressed to “ John R. Knox, Esq1, (member of the Darke County Legislature, of the Gibraltar Theater, and Student-at-Law),” a phrasing suggesting Ryan’s jovial nature. Knox had written of his participation in some amateur dramatics in the Greenville theater. Ryan came back with th is: “ In the nursery dialect when a child is unusually smart and precious, the old women who profess to be skilled in mystical lore will generally exclaim, ‘That child is too smart to live long.’ And upon the same principle I fear that your career is altogether too brilliant to be durable.” Another sentence from Ryan to K nox conveys the same

BETA LORE thought about the former’s vein of humor. On March 27, 1841, he wrote, Business is very brisk in town now. You might stand on the public square any hour in the day and you could not see a single wagon.” A little bit more of Ryan we get from an interview with Samuel Taylor Mar shall. “ What do you remember about R y an ?’ was the question. “ Mike was a splendid fellow, whole souled and all heart. He had more heart than half a dozen boys ought to have. He had fits and starts of study and was a kind of an athlete too.” Soon after graduating from Miami in 1839 with Knox and Linton as class mates and having had an active chapter membership in Beta Theta Pi of five days, Ryan was admitted to the bar of Butler County, Ohio, and became the partner of his brother-in-law, John B. Weller, then one of the most important men in the county. Ryan served as pros ecuting attorney from 1848 to 1852 when he was chosen clerk of courts, a position he held until 1858. He also was clerk of the fund commissioners of the county, appointed to distribute the surplus rev F O U N D E R R Y A N ’S G R A V E enue of the United States. The monument is in the cemetery in Hamilton, Ohio. He was a Democrat in politics and in 1856 was a delegate to the National Convention of the party at Cincinnati, when James Buchanan was chosen as the candidate. When the Civil W ar broke out he helped organize and recruit the Fiftieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry regiment and was made its colonel. But death claimed him in October, 1861, before he had a chance for service in the field. Founder Ryan was a great lover of books and he collected a large and valuable private library. He was a Mason, served a term as high priest of the Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, and took the degree of Knight Templar.

THOMAS BOSTON GORDON Thomas Boston Gordon, one of the founders of Beta Theta Pi, came from Scotch stock on both sides of the family.1 His great grandfather was Gilbert Gordon, who spoke such broad Scotch as not to be easily under1 This sketch o f Founder Gordon has been written in large measure, from in formation furnished by his second son, long of Kentucky State College but now living in K entucky Highlands, Lakeland, Florida. A son of the latter bears his grandfather’s name, Thomas Boston Gordon. The pictures o f Founder Gordon were made from photographs loaned for the purpose by his youngest daughter, Fannie (now Mrs. W . G. W ilson of Eminence, Kentucky). One of the pictures is taken from a small daguerreotype. The three together make most valuable human docu ments” which w ill be prized by Betas through all the years.

THOMAS BOSTON GORDON stood except by those who were familiar with it and with him. In his later years he lived at the home of his son near Hartwell, Hart County, Georgia. He was a man of much independence of character, as was illus trated by the fact that he would not consent to go to live near his son until the latter had agreed to build for him a little house and to give him an acre of land around it. His son was John Gordon, who married Sarah McCurry some time about 1810 or 1811. He was a soldier in the war of 1812 and received land script for his services which his sons later located in Iowa. He made his home near Hartwell, Georgia. To this family were born ten children: Gilbert Gordon, born December 13, 1811; attended Miami University, graduating in the class of 1837; studied theology at Erskine Seminary, Due W est, South Caro lina ; was pastor of Presbyterian churches in Bath County, Kentucky, 1850-54, in Louisville, Kentucky, 1854-74; on account o f failing health removed to Orlando, Florida, where he continued to preach as his health permitted, until 1885, when he lost his voice. He married Miss Charlotte Montfort, but had no children. H e died in Florida on August 10, 1887. Neal M acDougall Gordon, born about 1814; attended Miami University, gradu ating in the class of 1837 with his older brother G ilbert; also attended the Erskine

ounder

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G ordo n

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Seminary, Due W est, South Carolina; pastor of Ebenezer Presbyterian Church in Jessamine County, Kentucky, 1841-71. He was the author of The Purpose o f the Book o f Psalm s; also o f a poem entitled “Allegham ,” a sacred poem in nine books. H e married Miss Kate Smith, daughter of Abraham Lincoln’s pastor at Springfield, Illinois. T hey had four children. He died March 19, 1871. Thomas Boston Gordon, born February 4, 1816; a founder of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. M ary Gordon, born February 4, 1818; married Reverend Isham Goss, a Baptist minister o f Elbert County, Georgia, where she died January 29, 1891. She had six children: Ellen, James, John, Flora, Molly and Gordon. Flora Gordon, married Reverend Benjamin Goss, a brother of Isham Goss above, also a Baptist minister of Elbert County, Georgia. She was born about 1820 and left one son, Hamilton Gordon. Eleanor Gordon, married W illiam Lewis, a lawyer o f Cummings, Georgia. She left three sons, M ajor, Gilbert and W illie. John M cCurry Gordon, a merchant of Louisville, Kentucky, fo r many y e a rs; prominent Presbyterian elder in Louisville; married S arah ,Fleming. H is children were Angus W ., Thomas F., Flora and Neal, the last named dying in infancy.

BETA LORE Angus Gordon, died soon after reaching his majority. Robert Irwin Gordon, a promising young lawyer; mortally wounded in the Battle o f Antietam, while gallantly leading his company in that bloody struggle. M argaret Gordon, lived to a greater age than any of the others, dying March 2I» I 9 I 4, over eighty years of age. She never married.

One of his grandsons w rites: “ How grandfather could maintain and educate as he did so large a family to a standard distinctly above that of the community in which he lived, on a poor little Georgia farm of less than one hundred and fifty acres, with a tan yard attached, could not be

TH O M A S BO STO N GORDON A Founder o f Beta Theta Pi

explained without taking into account that my grandmother was such a woman as Burns describes his mother to be in his “ Cotter’s Saturday Night.” 2 * Thomas Boston Gordon, the member of this family in whose life the fraternity is more particularly interested, was born February 4, 1816, near Hartwell, Georgia, which was then part of Elbert County. Hart County was named in honor of the pioneer, Nancy Hart, who, while a party of British soldiers were enjoying a meal that they had forced her to prepare, seized their guns stacked in a corner, and marched the soldiers as prisoners 2 Letter to F. W . Shepardson from A . N. Gordon, 1916.

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in single file before her into the “ rebel camp.” Brother Gordon was attracted to Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, because his two older brothers, Gilbert and Neal, were enrolled there as students. 3 He put all his available cash into a horse and rode on horseback from Hartwell, Georgia, to Oxford, Ohio, carrying his entire outfit in a pair of leather saddle pockets.4 A fter four years at Miami where he received the degree of bachelor of arts in the class of 1840, he taught school in Decatur, Georgia, 1841-1842. He read law with Judge King at Forsythe, Georgia, where he was admitted to the bar in 1842. In 1845 received the degree of master of arts from Miami University and on June 11 of that same year he married Miss Frances M. Greer. She was the daughter of Gilbert and Jane (Pinckard) Greer. They lived at first in Forsythe, where the two eldest children of the family were born. In the spring of 1848 he removed overland to Kentucky, taking his negroes and household effects in wagons, and his wife and two children in a buggy, and settled on a farm in Bath County. About 1851 they moved to Owingsville, the county seat. Here Mr. Gordon resumed the practice of law. In 1854 he was elected County Judge, serving in that position for four years. In the fall of 1862 he and his two eldest sons, who were mere lads sixteeen and fifteen years old, respectively, entered the Confederate Army, joining a battalion of infantry in the brigade of General Humphrey M ar shall, which battalion was later merged with the Fifth Kentucky Regiment. In the spring of 1863 they were transferred to Company F, Second Bat talion, Kentucky Mounted Rifles, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel “ Tom ” Johnson.5 A fter the war, having lost everything, Mr. Gordon returned to his home in Kentucky, where he resumed teaching, from which he retired in 1879. He spent his last years on a farm. He was on a visit to his son, Angus Neal Gordon, of Kentucky State University, at Lexington, Ken tucky, when he was stricken with paralysis and died January 25, 1901. The children of Founder Gordon were: John Gilbert Gordon, born April 1, 1846. Angus Neal Gordon, born July 21, 1847. Sarah Gordon, born March 15, 1849, now Mrs. S. G. Holloway, Peabody Hotel, Memphis, Tennessee. Flora Jean Gordon, born November 25, 1850, died August 25, 1863. Fannie I. Gordon, born June 13, 1852, now Mrs. W illiam S. W ilson, of Em i nence, Kentucky. Thomas R. Gordon, born January 3, 1854; now and for many years Judge of the Circuit Court, Louisville, Kentucky. 3There we're three Gordons in the class of 1837 in Miami University, John M c Daniel Gordon from Xenia, Ohio, and Gilbert and Neal M acDougal Gordon, the latter two the brothers of founder Thomas Boston Gordon. They were born in Elbert County, Georgia. Both studied theology at the Erskine Theological Seminary. Both were Presbyterian ministers in Kentucky. Neal died March 19, 1871, and Gilbert, August 10, 1887. They were not fraternity men. 4 Charles H enry Hardin, co-founder o f the fraternity, “at seventeen, not finding in Missouri the desired opportunities for higher education, he rode horseback to Bloomington, Indiana, to enter the preparatory department o f Indiana University.” 5 Founder John H. Duncan also served in the Confederate Army.

Chapter V I I I — “ In Days o f Y ore” IN T H E F O R M A T IV E D A Y S A T M IA M I Among the letters preserved by “ Pater K nox” were about sixty from co-founders of Beta Theta Pi and other Beta workers of the first five years of the fraternity’s existence. They are intimate in character as the corre spondence of young college men is likely to be. They are surprisingly well written, considering their composition, their range of subject matter, and their utilization of the best thoughts of others, by way of illustration. The period was one of great popular excitement in the country when thousands were changing their political allegiance. The Miami campus was

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in turmoil owing to religious controversies and to a change in administration. The incipient fraternity too was having its difficulties. The situation is ad mirably reflected in letters written by Founder Charles Henry Hardin. In cidentally Hardin’s own activity as a builder is brought out, and there are sidelights thrown on Founder Marshall. Miami University December 28, 1840 M

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During this jubilee of the students, I shall make it my duty and pleasure to write you a few lines of O xford and the times. As you may have often experienced, it is mean, dull, and lonesome to one, who has occasionally an overflow of feeling and would, in the height of his mischief, break a bottle or upset a saucepan. The fellows have all absconded, and so there are none to keep Christmas or break the gloom of college halls with the wild whistle. A few seniors remain here to pen their winter s inspiration, and so closely have they gone about it that I dare say the very rats never hear 190

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their tread. What sweet w ork! Bless the man who invented i t ! What a purpose for a Christmas holly-day— to hunt and scratch for ideas from a mangy head! How intellectual to blow away the dust and commune with the past thought! Y et what a violation of integrity! Men who write cull an evergreen here, pluck a feather there, borrow a metaphor of this man, an idea of that, so on until the whole is completed, a mere batch of extracts, parts of expressions, and members of sentences. This calls to mind our Exhibition of Wednesday last. Mills, 2d, Church ill, and Jelly were the orators of the evening. The girls said they were excellent, but the critics declared that, as an exhibition, it was the least meritorious of any ever known. Mills wrote and spoke well but fell below expectation; Churchill wrote well, but Jelly did neither. He had the greatest concatenation o f sentences and ideas you ever heard of. However this is all stuff. We, the favored few (you know), swim along jollily down the current of the year. W e are as yet only seven in number. W e would be full, were it not for our constitution, which though revised and adopted by us, has not yet received the sanction of the Cincinnati chapter. I do not know how you, the older members, will like i t ; but we have done our prettiest. Though we completely overhauled the old, yet the new does not differ from it, only in a feature or two. A ll idea of a mother chapter has been destroyed, and as the second article is written, the association will be composed of chapters, equal in power and similar in forms of procedure. A second particular, which arises from the entire equality of the chapters, is that chapters can be established only by the concurrence of the established chapters. Thus you see our good old dear mammy has been shorn of her locks and robbed of her power, exercising now only a voice equal to the others who are, or may be, of the great Beta Theta Pi association. This is surely what we have long wanted; for now all delicacy and difficulty of defining the powers and relations of the mother and chapters are at an end. One of the ordinances of the constitution is that there shall be a triennial convention, composed of delegates from the several chapters, whose duty it shall be to alter or amend the constitution if necessary and transact all other business which they may deem proper; but such transactions will be of no avail unless ratified by the several chapters. Though we consulted much about this point, yet I believe it to be quite a happy clause of that document. Such are the principal changes. There are others of a minor nature, naturally arising from the introduction of important features. I cannot tell, what the fellows of the city will do, but will probably adopt. They have had a new accession or tw o : young men of extra talent and ability, men of that sublime science, the law. A s the fellow says the Union Hall is there: first in talent, first in mem bers, and first in wealth. John Gilchrist made our anniversary speech. Many of the good citizens of the town were there and were truly wellpleased. He does the thing as you know he can, does it with that vigor and ability which you know characterizes many of the sons of Union Hall. W e came it over your brother: the Eros did their best, but, to be simple in ex pression, they couldn’t shine. If he remains with us long, we shall be proud of him. About four months ago I paid off a debt of yours with Long, though held

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in the name of Linton. Long wanted the money and Linton wanted it paid, so Whiting and myself borrowed twenty dollars and paid for yourself and Duncan. The fellow of whom I borrowed the money wants it badly and I cannot raise a damn cent for him. If possible you will send it down to me immediately and the poor fellow shall be gratified. W e have had our election for speakers: stand thus, Shellabarger, Paddack, Scott, and Hardin-. Do you not startle at the idea that Scott was cho sen and Long left out? I never saw such damn fools in my life— for men to drop such a man as Long and choose Scott. Long is by far the best writer in college, and perhaps as able a scholar. Well, the Hall will rue i t ! Shella barger is chief speaker. Owing to circumstances I intend to resign. Mack Mills will be chosen. Write as soon as convenient. Yours most sincerely, C h a s . H . H a r d in

T H E M IAM I. C A M P U S A T T H E T IM E O F T H E F O U N D IN G OF PHI D ELTA TH E T A

P.S.— Taylor Marshall was here a month since. I know not where on earth he is n ow ; perhaps at thevcity studying law. Our new president will be on shortly; then damn me if the fellows won’t have to stand about, for he is a rigid disciplinarian, a red hot Yankee. Whitney is now in my room, tran scribing the minutes and speeches into a book. He says you must send yours down immediately as he wishes to square up things before his term is out. His respects accompany this. C h as. H. H

a r d in

Oxford, Ohio January 17, 1841 D e a r F r ie n d ,

Y our letter has scarcely been read, when I am again in haste to write you. You discover so much interest and anxiety in the prosperity of

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that amiable association (Beta Theta Pi) that I am forward to make known a small part of our proceedings and solicit advice for the determination of future action. W e meet and consult like Conscript Fathers upon the perfection and better sailing of that vessel of the “ select few,” scarcely in the offing that binds the vision of sight. When once fairly trimmed and manned, with confidence all believe she will triumph over the struggles of opposing hin drances and skim like the bird in its flight along the ocean, moaning with the storm and the surge. To this end do we mainly labor and sagely advise upon every point that partakes of constitution or any wise touches the civil action of the crescent and the stars. On last Wednesday we met as usual and for the third time adopted a constitution with amendments from our friends, the Cincinnati chapter. They were generally good suggestions and, of course, were readily accepted. They made other suggestions, incidentally, which we, in a free discussion through respect to them, like to have made a matter of interest. They were broad and deep innovations which our older and graduated members would, I am certain, have startled at. For instance, to change the name and blessed sound of Beta Theta Pi into that ugly and crooked title, Pi Theta Kappa. This, though not urged warmly, was most warmly rejected. A second instance, giving unlimited members to chapters or an extension from nine to fifteen. I was fearful that this proposition would take; but when I told them of the opinion of those who formed and modeled the old constitu tion, it too was almost unanimously voted down. Your opinion, which I remembered, fell upon them like the revered advice of a father, and, though they like the independent exercise of their own volition, yet they yielded willingly to the respected legacy of the founders of the constitution and association. Though I stated that we had adopted a constitution in full, we have n ot; but deferred an old article for further consideration. It is the one that re lates to the formation of the pin or badge. The idea is, that the symbols, viz., the crescent, three stars and a pair of hearts with a spear passed through them, mean nothing, and that they should either be symbolical of the objects of the X X X or should be thrown away and others chosen. The proposition now is, that we should have symbols of some kind (not imi tating the Alphas) and they should be representative of the very objects of our union; so that, at a single glance, we may be able to read on the face of the badge the honorable aspirations of our hearts and sworn fidelity. I think this is quite a good suggestion, and though it will put those who have badges to the expense and trouble of again letting them slip through the hands of the merchant, yet better this than that they should bear upon their bosom things all ornament and no meaning. If, however, the present device means anything (we know of nothing) you will please inform us and I dare say if satisfactory, all will gladly retain it, though against it. A few urge the ground of too close imitation of the Alphas. For my part even plausible reasons will satisfy me, for I am all absorbed in the crescent and stars. They give a beauty to the badge and a mystery that nothing

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else will. I believe I would retain them, though they mean nothing nor would be made to represent any object of the X X X without a strained defini tion. If they were symbols of the ends of the association, then would two sets of characteis be indicative of the same thing or things; for when we read on the badge the Greek letters Beta Theta Pi, we understand the name of our society as well as the initials of our motto, B— T — P, the very ob jects of all exertion and avowed friendship; hence the Beta Theta Pian (shall it be allowable) will as fully understand the nature and design of our association by a glance at the initials, Beta Theta Pi, as he would at a peep at the stars and pale Luna, meaning friendship, mutual assistance, and mental improvement. There is no reason can be given why language

V IE W O F T H E S L A N T W A L K TH R O U G H A LU M N I GATE, T A K E N FRO M T H E S T E P S O F T H E A L P H A C H A P T E R H O U SE

should be given to the characters upon our badge, whereas one most positive can be urged for their permanent continuance; that they have been estab lished and many badges have already gone out from the stamp of the die. I say, retain them for their beauty and their mystery and their poetry. The poet has devoted many a passing remark, ode and sonnet to the beautiful wan face of the moon, and Byron in the overflow of his admiration exclaims, “ Y e stars, who art the poetry of Heaven.” These little readings seem to make me admire the badge the more, and when I come in from looking upon the star of the evening, peeping out from its beautiful, blue home, I think it was a most happy concoction and forms a most admirable ornament to the pin, as well as giving a deep veil of mys tery so much in unison with a marked peculiarity of our association. Write, then, freely and fully upon that article which proposes what shall be upon our badge or pin.

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I received a letter from Taylor Marshall a day or two ago after I wrote to you, saying that he was then upon the banks of Lake Michigan, looking upon its waters, freezing. He had gone to Michigan City to secure some property, after which he would in all probability be here soon in Oxford. I would not be surprised if he were to spend the coming season in Indiana. Duncan went home today, but will return tomorrow. With you, I wish you were here to aid us in the adoption of our consti tution. W e would profit much from your services. If we do not the thing, attribute it more to a want of capacity than a want of interest or feeling. The “ firm” send their warmest respects. Write soon and plentifully, Yours most sincerely, C

h as.

H. H

a r d in

P.S.— I acknowledge the receipt of five dollars. If you would wish to read Jelly’s speech, turn to the April No. 1840 of the Southern Literary Messenger, Influence of Authors. The second division came off last Thurs day evening, composed of Paddack, Long, Colb, Whitney, and Andrews. Reily, ’tis singular the X X X always shine, let it come where it may. I felt an interest in the speeches of the first, second, and fourth I never did before. Before they rose I felt as confident of their success as though it had already been proclaimed. It is given up that Long took the shines, but almost equalled by Paddack and Whitney. Colb declaimed with as much vanity and vociferation as though he were great and his audience, the howling winds. Andrews made much noise about his speech, but it turned out a failure. It was a pretty little thing, but neither touched his subject or anything else in particular, merely skimming over the poet’s page, gathering its choicest beauties. Oxford, Ohio April 10th, 1841 F r ie n d R

e il y ,

Your letter of January 25th has long been before me, but, owing to the want of energy and that promptness which belongs to a good correspondent, it has never been answered. It was my intention to write you at the commence ment of the vacation but of all times to think or to act the holly-days do beat the Devil. Then a man’s brain is dark as Cimmerian and sappy as a green turnip. The whole frame is loaded with the chains of sloth and deeply steeped in the dose of listlessness and melancholy that would and ever will naturally arise from deserted halls like these and the severe countenance of O xford creditors. The Christian detests the name and calling of the Dev il, but fears his power— so the student despises the level and high profession of Runyan, yet he fears his capias and bows to his authority. His authority knows not me yet, but had I had not come to the point lately, I suppose things between the O xford merchant and myself would have grown quite squally. This leads me to speak of Marshall and his situation. He wrote to me lately and seemed to be much affected with difficulties. His brother is broke, and he sacrifices his property to pay his brother’s debts, no doubt leaving himself without a cent by which he could complete his studies in the law and give him, as we all say, a “ start in the world.” That is Taylor to l if e ! Liberal to a fault, and sympathizing with a brother or friend, he would divest him

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self of anything to appease his wants. His letter to me discovers the only time I ever knew him to be melancholy or in the least dispirited. Would it were in my power to aid or to console! It would be the most cordial service of my heart; for I know Taylor and shall ever love him as a friend and Beta. His last year at college wedded me to him and made him dear to my feelings and recollection; for I can never review my connections with the institution for that year without thinking of him as a warm friend and intimately en listed in my welfare. In a few years would that I could hear that he had triumphed over all difficulty and become able and useful in business! Reily, the nation mourns! Because of H arrison! Who of our country men could we not have spared before? Anyone. Had he lived he would have made his name great and glorious. Renowned as Washington, he would have stood with him in fame and history. Mankind will never forget his virtues and his services to his age. Tyler is not Harrison, but he’s the same of patriotism and virtue, and with him our country flourishes. Daniel Web ster, the peak of living greatness, is there. Though Harrison is dead, yet not a jot of our living hope and confidence in the cabinet is lost. Rome could have lost Augustus when Maecenas was secretary— so, though we may have lost the sternness and counsel of Fabius in Harrison, yet the ability, the talent, and the greatness of Pitt rest in, our Webster. Van Buren lies like the kenneled fox at Kinderhook, and may there he be, feeding upon his shame and disgrace till the boon of life is yielded to his Maker! Like Nero, I would rather have seen him burn the capital of our country and grin ghastly smiles over the. flames as they rose, curling beautifully toward heaven, than that he should have sat like a palsying incubus upon the bosom of his country, deadening its life and its energies. Look here, Reily, you may see in this what we folks of Union Hall think of you. Sometime back I asked a Sophomore of our Hall who the class talked of for speaker to address them, when Seniors. He said he “ didn’t know, but I myself intend to go my death for Reily Knox.” You may be sure I cherished the idea by telling him I admired his choice. Go your death, next fall two years, it shall be your pleasure to thunder again in the literary halls of O xford and confer upon those who only know you by reputation diplomas in behalf of that Hall, the most glorious of memory. The Betas who are here are full of the joy and jollity of life, warm and cordial as the wine of years. Bless the star that rose when I became a Beta, for it was the happiest moment of my life. The bond of— and— is the most admirable association ever thought of by man. Let us rejoice in our associa tion. and emulate each other in the accomplishment of those objects which our constitution specifies or implies. The pin has been changed; the founda tion to be of black enamel; the characters of gold; the crescent is taken out and in its stead is placed a diamond encircled with a wreath. All the old members are opposed to it, except Ryan and Witherby. Notwithstanding the old imitated the Alphas I went for it in preference to the new. The fellows, however, did, I think, as they conceived to be the best. Write soon. Yours with----- and------, C h As. H . H

a r d in

p.S — Dr. Junkin comes to O xford today or Monday. W e look now for something extra. Few new students have come in yet. The teachers in col

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lege number eight (8) now. W e have a professor who teaches all living languages from Indian to Chinese. A t the ending of last session old Doctor classified us Seniors. In the first division were Naylor, Scott, Lowes, Vance, Moore, and a few others, having a respectable fellow or two with the damndest asses in the class. Surely old Doc is verging upon his green old a g e ! This reminds me of the classification of your class, putting Grimke Swan, Jackson Duffi in the first grade, and Fulsome, yourself, and others in the third. Let the bare recital of such things be a criticism upon them !

T H E L O U N G E A N D L I B R A R Y A T D E N IS O N

LETTERS FROM “THE FORTIES” Here are three absolutely new Beta letters. New so far as knowl edge of them is concerned; old so far as their pages browned with years, their dates, and their names go. They are not in Beta Letters. For them Beta Theta Pi is indebted to Miss Edith W . Smith of Denver, Colorado, a niece of Founder James George Smith “ of ever honored memory.” They come from out the treasure chest of the Smith family. They tell of the experiences and problems of the incipient fraternity. No subject was more debated than whether the existence of Beta Theta Pi should be made known to the college world. No men were more active and aggressive for Beta Theta Pi in the first decade than Alexander Paddock and Edward Bruce Stevens. Letters written by them in Beta Letters should be re-read in connection with the printing of the following hitherto unpublished ones. Particularly pleasing are the sentences which carry newsy items about the founders of the fraternity and their prospects in life. The idea advanced by Daniel McCleary, ’42, to Stevens is worth special attention. Beta Theta

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Pi was founded to help its individual members, not to be an influence in itself upon society— “ the original design was that we should act on our selves and not upon society.” “ Here we meet in joys fraternal Meet to cheer our brothers on.” In Paddock s letter the abbreviation la ’ is* to be read as Indiana Iowa not coming into the Union until 1846. The text says “ $15 Johnson,” probably referring to some familiar college joke. The celebration in Cin cinnati on October jg 1840, may have been a political meeting in the famous Log Cabin campaign o f that fall. Paddock seems to have had a vision of “ the long illustrious line” when he wrote about the “ Smith, Knox and Martin line.” »

TH E G REAT H ALL A T PURDUE A s seen from the mezzanine floor, showing the fireplace and type of decoration.

Miami ’41, to J a m e s G e o r g e S m i t h , Miami ’40. Monday morning, November 9, 1840. Before I left Cincinnati a new member was initiated into the Cincinnati chapter of Beta Theta Pi. His name is J. L. Scott, and he resides at Lafayette, la., practicing law there. I have known him as long back as memory serves me almost. Beard and Gano and Snow were all acquainted with him. Beard was his confi dential friend. He is a fellow of talent and worthy of membership in every respect— and one who by his talents and energy of character will take a high stand in the world. He graduated at Cincinnati College a couple of years since with the highest credit. Although he does not reside I. A

lexander

P a d d o c k ?,

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in the city at this time (though it has always heretofore been his residence) yet it was thought to be a good move to elect him to membership, for it would be adding to our number a good fellow, and giving so far character and stability to the Association. A fter he was introduced we talked over the fitness of two other individuals, one of whom I was well acquainted with, a graduate of Ohio University (of this Summer past) and talented, by name Mitchell. The other I was not acquainted w ith ; but the others w ere; his name is Sterns; both of these are students of law. It was determined that the offer should be made-—a meeting was appointed to receive their answers and upon the afternoon of the morning that I left the city. O f the result I have not been informed yet. Scott entered into the objects of the Association with warmth and highly approved of its character.

T H E L IV IN G R O O M A T W E S T M IN S T E R

He procured a pin before leaving the city which was in a few days after I left. He is a valuable acquisition and Snow and myself regretted that he would not be in the city this winter to assist in building the chapter there up— by the interest he takes in it and his extensive acquaintance together with his energy, his assistance in this respect would be valuable. In regard to the chapter here— we have had the constitution revised and improved— all meet next Thursday when it is probable final action will be taken upon it. Probably Oliver Witherby and Mich. Ryan may be here; and also we may determine upon filling up our number— what say you to Shellabarger and Harbine? I received a letter from Beard last week— he is at home and reading law. Taylor Marshall was here last Friday night and left on Saturday I expect. He has been out on the Wabash and to Kentucky and has been unwell but has recovered. He has been wearing his pin pretty constantly so that a number of the students saw and examined it at Hamilton, such as Jos. Davis, T. Ben Mills, and thought

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it a singular thing but could make nothing out of it— the Greek , date being inexplicable; in answer to their questions He gave them some of his talk that turned them off— at Cincinnati he also came in contact with Bellyille (he lives theie now) and $15 Johnson—^-both of them were very much taken with it and wished an explanation— their curiosity was great but they received no satisfaction. Taylor even wore it here during vacation, having forgotten that he had it on till Sam Powe told him. A t Cincinnati on the first October at the celebration, Sam Holley saw and examined Reily K nox s with some curiosity to have an explanation— though he was put off with a joke; also Pugh saw Beard wearing his and has seen them at the jewellers and believes there is a Beta Theta Pi in Cincinnati

T H E LOUNGE AT PURD UE Showing the mezzanine floor and the cozy corner beneath it, with, trophy cups over the mantel.

and believes that Beard and Gano are in it and another fellow who is not a member— further than this he suspects not. Your friend O ’Neal told some of the fellows here that you wore a curious pin and between them made it an Alpha Delta Phi. Since your denial, however, it is disbelieved. I understood the matter as soon as I heard of your statement. Knowing that you sometimes wore your Beta Theta Pi pin— and in some respects, viz., the characters, same as Alpha Delta Phi, O ’Neal told them of stars and crescent, perhaps, and they, knowing of nothing but Alpha Delta Phi, immediately concluded as they did. 1 1 1 u 11 Reily Knox has a brother here. He came Saturday last and we shah make him a Union Lit— indeed we consider “ our right to him, there are

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none to dispute”— it is exclusive. The Smith, Knox and Martin line is continued through their present representatives. Now I must stop. This is the second letter I have written you, and if length and frequency of writing gives a person credit I have it. The present is long bore. I have said almost everything I know of now that would interest you. Go thou and do likewise. I admit the principle of retaliation. Write me. Yours sincerely, | A lex P addock

II. E d w a r d B r u c e S t e v e n s , Miami ’43, to J a m e s G e o r g e S m i t h , Miami ’40 „ „ T lonroe, Ohio, March 31, 1843 D ear F

r ie n d

I had desired to see you this vacation, but (as you can readily imagine if you have been out any) the roads and weather have rendered a visit to the valley of Caesar’s Creek almost impossible. In the place of seeing you in propria persona as I wished, I write you a few lines on that subject dis cussed by us at Oxford. Since we have parted I have written letters to our friends in part, to our friend A lex Paddock now in Mississippi, to some of the boys in Kentucky, also to W arder in Springfield, who will write to Hardin and Rod Mason. I do no" expect to hear from any of them until I return to Oxford, which will be in a few days. I have seen Dan McCleary, on my return home. He seems strongly op posed to any movement like avowing the existence of our Miami chapter. I had not time to stay with him long— but tried to urge all I could in its favor. He does not seem to understand how we should EDW ARD BRUCE STEVEN S, wish to avow from any desire of acting Miami ’43 upon the community, as a regular asso A college-days picture of an early Beta enthusiast. ciated body; but rather thinks that any influence thus exerted would be rather detrimental than beneficial both to the individual members and to the asso ciation as a whole. Acting like the Society of Free Masons, McCleary thinks that any such society as the Beta would be generally known and observed, and that any attempt by one member in favor of another would be perceived by the world immediately. A t any rate the original design was that we should act upon ourselves and not upon society. To sum up his opinion generally— He thought any such move would look like vanity in us, and that for his part he did not approve of secret societies whose existence was known. He considered that none of our objects led us into any connection with the world. To these objections I answered all I knew or had then thought of, which indeed was little more than a repetition of our conversation at John Thomas’s room.

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I have always thought that the main, perhaps the sole, objection to publicity was the influence exerted in college. To avert the evils of an exposure we have for nearly four years kept entirely secret at Oxford. The plan that is now proposed, I think, does not endanger us any more than previously we were. Let no member of the Miami chapter acknowl edge his connection with us, for at least six months or a year after his final leave of the University, while that part of the chapter still remaining at O xford will continue stat nominis umbra, still as quiet and secret as if no such avowal had been made. So that then no laws can be made that shall effect us in the two Societies. If such laws were made I presume they would be regarded about as much as they were in days of yore. Whether we should exert any particu lar influence upon society or not is a question I am not prepared to answer. I have never heard that such societies as ours, the Phi Beta Kappa, the renowned Alpha Delta Phi, or others, have exerted any such influence. If they expect to do anything of the kind, we may be equally sanguine. W e are not equally numerous yet, but in our gallant little band we may boast some spirits that are destined to take no mean stand in the country. But here is the strong reason in my humble opinion— Necessity. W e now number six regularly organized chapters and about ninety members. O f these six chapters two or three have avowed their existence, and some of these were sus pected (as well as our own) previous to their avowal. This fact, together with EDW ARD BRUCE STEVEN S, the many little things known at Oxford, Miami, ’43 will make us always in the future almost A s he looked in later years, still an absolutely and certainly known to exist enthusiastic believer in the slogan, as a society at Oxford. An avowal such “ Once a Beta, always a Beta, every where a Beta.” as we propose will I think act as a blind tcf the brothers of the Alpha, and if it should not, why we will be in no worse predicament than we were before; they even then can but suspect our existence in college, and they do that now. But now that we are becoming in a measure quite extended there must be something to unite us more than the mere word Friendship and something beyond a name to keep up the interest of the Association. Already we see it begin to flag at the mother chapter. Old members have no strong desire to come back merely to play hide and go seek about the streets and alleys of O xford. This would wake us all up I think; they say it has done so in those chapters where such an avowal has been made. I began this letter with an intention of throwing all the obstacles in the way that I could think of, but before I was aware I find myself advocating with all my might. No doubt you have been thinking over this subject

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more than I have. Please write soon and give me fully all you think, either pro or con. I should like if you would write to Reily Knox (at Greenville) soon. Perhaps the opinion of a personal friend might weigh more with him than that of a letter friend. If you can, consistently with prudence and conscience, obtain the regular accessions of the Alpha Delta Phi at O xford from Jim Goode, and send me I should like. I shall use such information only to prevent selecting them as Betas. I should like to know all their present members. Write soon. You know the necessity of despatch in the present case as, if we avow, considerable must be done in a short time. Believe me, my dear Smith, yours forever, B ruce S teven s

T H E OLD ST E V E N S H OM E A T M ON ROE This picture taken in 1927 by Prof. Edward Stevens Robinson, Cincinnati ’16, Y ale psychologist, shows the present condition of his grandfather’s house in Monroe, Ohio. In this place a zealous Beta correspondent wrote many letters now o f priceless value to the history of the fraternity.

III. E d w a r d B r u c e S t e v e n s , Miami ’43, to J a m e s G e o r g e S m i t h , Miami ’40 Miami University, July 12, 1843 M

D ear S m it h :

W hy don’t you write? I have expected something from you for a long time, and now I am determined to write myself. I have not indeed much to communicate, but as you remember there was a proposition on our O xford tapis, which remained to be decided when you were here. Per haps it will be interesting to you to know how that proposition was ulti mately determined and why it was so determined. W ell then in the first place we have thought best to postpone the whole consideration of avowing in any shape for the present. This I suppose you were prepared for, otherwise you would have gone before us. W e thought best to pay some regard to those we thought might have acquired a good

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share of experience in their older connection with the common Associa tion. But enough of this; you will be with us in a short time and then we can talk over the whole matter, to much better satisfaction than on paper. A s Goode was over home not long since, of course he gave you an out line of the O xford news— that is, news in the common acceptation of the w ord ; for in the reality there is nothing new ever occurs in this dully monotonous place. A . W . Hamilton is now at Cambridge, Massachusetts, where I expect he will establish a branch of the society. There are now at Old Harvard a branch of the Alpha Delta Phi as also one of the Phi Beta Kappa. But Hamilton thinks he can found a branch of the Beta there to good advantage. God speed him— Perhaps he may also found other chapters at Eastern institutions before his return to Kentucky. I hear occasionally from some of our friends. Charley Hardin wrote a long letter a few weeks since. He has removed from Columbia to Fulton and wishes you to write to him. He has been admitted to the bar and had several successful cases. From all accounts he is doing well. Report says he’ll marry a fine Missouri lady in a short time. Reily K nox writes frequently; he will be down home, to remain until commencement, in a week. He too was admitted to the bar last term of Supreme Court. I have not time to write you much now. Our final examinations are in progress and of course we are hurried. W e have a meeting of the Beta tonight and in a few minutes there is to be an exhibition of the Junior class. One of our Betas is to hold forth, Mr. DuBois. I have heard his speech— quite a good little affair. I am ever your friend and Brother, E d B ruce S tevens

I shall go home Friday to remain a few days. Lebanon next week.

Perhaps I may be in

THE FRATERN ITY AND THE CENTRAL WEST F r a n c is

W . S h e p a r d s o n , Denison ’82

The first General Convention of Beta Theta Pi was held in Cincinnati, beginning on Monday, August 15, 1842. A. W. Hamilton of the Miami chapter was appointed a committee to report “ further definite objects of the Association.” In due time he introduced the following resolutions: 1. Resolved, That the primary objects of this Association are the pro motion of truth and the cultivation of love. 2. Resolved, That in order to attain these obj'ects, some methods should be devised in order to bring the talents, attainments and pursuits of each member to bear upon the whole Association. 3. Resolved, That one of these methods should be_the establishment, whenever it shall be deemed practicable, of literary institutions in our' country.

IN THE CENTRAL W EST

20$

4. Resolved, That another of these methods should be the establishment, as soon as practicable, of a periodical with such object as the Association may designate. 5. Resolved, That for the attainment of these ends provision should be made for the establishment of a society fund by annual contributions from its members. On the first reading this ambitious programme appears far outside of the real purpose of a college fraternity. On second thought, one catches the inspiration of this first Convention of the fraternity, and gets a glimpse, at least, of the lofty ideals which the fathers had in mind when they founded Beta Theta Pi. The temptation is strong to make a few side excursions here. That word “ Association,” always used in early days to designate the fraternity

J E F F E R S O N C O L L E G E B U IL D IN G S IN 1850

and still preserved in the initiatory obligations, is magnified as one reads the resolutions which came from the mind of that early Beta expansionist, who went East soon to establish the Harvard chapter in 1843. That proposition to start a fraternity magazine thirty years before the Beta Theta P i came into existence is significant, because the clear idea was to make it a factor in the literary life of the Central West, as well as the official organ of the fraternity. That suggestion, within three years of the foundation of Beta Theta Pi, that there should be an endowment fund to enable the fraternity to do its contemplated work, is rather a surprising one, considering how slowly endowments developed in the West. But there is another thought which must take precedence in this special study. It was emphasized by the story told in a little book, entitled, The Life and Writings of Governor Charles Henry Hardin. When that dis tinguished founder of our fraternity was a baby in arms, the family moved from Kentucky to Missouri and located in Columbia, the present seat of the University of Missouri. A s his father died when he was a lad, he came much under the influence of Dr. William Jewell, his mother’s brother,

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who later founded the college which bears his name. The idea of a college education was early implanted in the youthful Hardin’s mind. But, when he was ready to enter upon his college course, he found no institution in Missouri offering such opportunities. So he rode horseback from his home in Columbia to Bloomington, Indiana, and entered Indiana College. He Stayed »there for two years and then migrated to Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, where he graduated in 1841. In later years, when he was able, he remedied one defect in the Missouri educational situation by founding the Hardin Female College in Mexico, Missouri. It takes little imagination to conclude that Founder Hardin’s own experience when in search of an education had large influence in this later benefaction. Might not this resolution of the Beta Theta Pi Convention of 1842 that literary institutions should be established in our country, whenever it should be deemed practicable, also have influenced him consciously or unconsciously?

T H E B E T A H O U S E A T D IC K IN S O N

Monmouth College in Illinois was much influenced in its formative days by Beta ideals, according to the testimony of Edgar MacDill, Monmouth ’79. He is the son of David L. MacDill, Miami ’48, who migrated to Centre College at the time of the “ Snow Rebellion” at Miami, became the fourth Miami member of Centre chapter and graduated there in 1849. The first president of Monmouth College was David A. Wallace, Miami ’46, and he served there for twenty-one years. One of his principal professorial helpers was Thomas Henry Rogers, Miami ’56, who was in charge of mathe matics at Monmouth for thirty-four years. “ These men,” Edgar MacDill declared, “ and some others connected with Monmouth College gave the Beta ideals to Monmouth; and it is a fact that the high standing the college took right from its start was due to the Beta ideals of its first president, and no higher ideals for conduct and scholarship exist. A t Seattle, Washington, a member of the Colgate chapter, brother Eman uel Schmidt, became president of Adelphia College, a flourishing educa

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tional institution for the training of Swedish-Americans. When he was called to the presidency and was directed to organize the college, he thought over possible names. The old local society at Colgate, which was the nucleus for our Beta Theta chapter, was called Adelphia. The little chapter paper published by the active members is called The Adelphian. As he reflected it seemed to this constructive Beta that no better name for his college could be found than that of the Colgate society. Thus, in recent years, the influence of Beta Theta Pi was reflected in the name of a western institution for higher education, which, unfortunately, was not able to weather financial storms which came to it after a few semesters. The Convention resolutions, the incident in Founder Hardin’s life, and the conversation with President Schmidt somehow have become united in my thought. And another sentence is strangely intermixed. It is from a letter from Brother William Raimond Baird, reflecting an oft-expressed idea, “ I should much like to see our expansion reasonably finished soon. But I suppose we can’t help it. A s the country grows, we must.” Out of this commingling, this question came to me, “ What colleges were there in the Central West when Beta Theta Pi was founded and what sort of institutions were they when the fraternity entered them?” In studying the question, only those colleges were considered which are associated with Beta Theta Pi. Ohio University at Athens was the pioneer. It was chartered in 1802, before Ohio was a state, its preliminary history dating back for nearly a score of years before that. The first building, no longer standing, was erected in 1808-9. The central building of the present group was constructed in 1817. The “ university” opened on June 1, 1809, when three students enrolled, none of whom remained to graduate. Two men graduated in 1815, but it was 1822 before the organization of the first full faculty, as it was called, with four members. With the initial date considered as 1809, “ Ohio” was thirty years old when Beta Theta Pi was founded. If the real start be counted in 1822, the institution was seventeen years old in 1839. Miami dates from 1809, but, like Ohio, it was slow in getting started, its first president beginning his service in 1824, the real college opening coming in August of that year, just fifteen years before the first meeting of Beta Theta Pi. That same year, 1824, was marked by the founding of Kenyon. But its growth, too, was painfully slow. The cornerstone of famous “ Old Kenyon” was laid in June, 1827, but, as a matter of fact, college work had not been in progress at Gambier for ten years when Reily Knox and his friends formed the charmed circle ;down at Miami. Western Reserve gives 1826 as its initial date. The next year it opened its “ doors” for work. It had one teacher and twenty-three students that season, rather an unpromising start for the “ Yale of the W est” as it was called, a title, by the way, also appropriated by the friends of Miami. A controversy over slavery divided its supporters in its first decade, led to the establishment of Oberlin, and left it a weak and struggling institution in i8 39The only other “ Beta college” in Ohio in 1839 was Denison. Its initial move was in 1830. Its charter dates from 1831. Its first class graduated in 1840. Its pioneer history was marked by fires and other misfortunes which made “ Granville College,” as it was then called, almost as despairing a venture as was Kenyon or Reserve.

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In Indiana, admitted to the Union in December, 1816, a seminary was opened at Bloomington in 1820. It was made a college in 1828, with a president and two professors, and, when Founder Hardin left it in 1839, it still was a weak and struggling institution, not yet dignified with its present university” name. The Presbyterians of the state opened an academy at Hanover in 1827, which, in 1833, became Hanover College. It had to face poverty, debt, and the other incidents of childhood, and in 1837, two years before Beta Theta Pi was born, a tornado destroyed the principal building. In like manner, giving an early date but appreciating that their careers were marked by hard struggles for existence, by poverty, by instructional weakness, and by the proverbial “ days of small things,” Wabash (1832), and Indiana Asbury, now De Pauw (1837), came into existence. In Illinois were Illinois College at Jacksonville (1829) and K nox at Galesburg (1837). The year before, 1836, had seen the revival of interest in the Cincinnati College and the reorganization of its arts depart ment with as strong a faculty as there was west of the mountains. In Michigan, the university was established August 26, 1817, but it did not open its doors for students at Ann Arbor until September, 1841. ■ This institutional poverty in the old Northwest Territory explains to some extent the popularity of Transylvania, founded in 1798, and Centre, established in 1819, two Kentucky colleges which drew many students from the region now fully occupied by colleges in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. There was a good degree of interest, also, in Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tennessee, which started its work three years after the fraternity organization at Miami. Across the Ohio border to the east were Washing ton and Jefferson, in a strong Presbyterian part of the keystone state. Within seventeen years Beta Theta Pi had entered every one of the colleges which have been mentioned except Oberlin, Kenyon, and Granville. It established chapters in them when they were weak and struggling. But it discovered then, what is equally true today, that an American educa tional institution draws the greater part of its students from its imme diate vicinity. That statement will apply to Harvard and Yale, to Michigan and California, to Wabash and Denison, to Nebraska and Iowa. The examination of the usual table of college catalogues, designed to show the source, of the constituency, will prove that. A s a result of its-wise act in getting into the colleges early, Beta Theta Pi soon had many of its sons “ high on the scroll of honor and fame.” Miami, De Pauw, Hanover, Indiana, Wabash, Ohio, Western Reserve, Centre, Washington and Jef ferson found their early graduates leaders everywhere. Governors, sena tors, preachers, teachers, judges, lawyers, generals, foremost in every walk of life these early alumni brought great honor to the badge that we wear. The same result followed every, time that the fraternity boldly pushed out as a pioneer to share in the strength of the strong boys, even where the college was weak. If we have not seized the opportunity, the fraternity which has done so has reaped this certain reward. A little excursion through Baird’s Betas of Achievement will show pretty conclusively that the frater nity has gained far more from this courage in maintaining chapters in small and new institutions than it has from calm satisfaction with having chapters in the large and the old. The thought may be worth consideration in connection with Brother Baird’s wish to see the fraternity’s work of

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expansion soon complete. And true completion does not mean barring the doors and becoming conservative, which in many cases means the same as becoming moribund. In looking back over the history of Beta Theta Pi, it is extremely inter esting to note how the fraternity made its start for the most part in small, struggling, young colleges; how it grew with them, gaining strength as they gained strength; and how it contributed through its early members to the upbuilding of the literary and cultural features of Central Western life. Beta Theta Pi as such never established any literary institutions in our country. The Suggested literary magazine never was established. Indeed, it met with opposition in the Convention which first heard the idea men tioned. But the notion of individual influence which the fathers had is still powerful. The roll of our “ Betas of Achievement” shows what those who wore our badge did for the Central West more than half a century ago.

INTERESTING THINGS TO KNOW 1. The first Beta to graduate from college was John Reily Knox, Miami, ’39. In the early years of the fraternity members of college faculties and boards of trustees were elected to membership, partly for the prestige of such recognized membership, partly as a defense against hostile faculty action or board legislation. That explains such members of Beta Theta Pi as Ormond Beatty, Centre ’35, John Clarke Young, Centre (Dickinson ’23, Henry Snyder, Centre (Jefferson ’38), George Edmond Pierce, Western Reserve ( Yale ’ 16), Cyrus Nutt De Pauw ’36, William Clarke Larrabee, De Pauw (Bowdoin ’28) and others who were most valuable to Beta Theta Pi and remained till death devoted members. But “ Pater K nox” is awarded the blue ribbon as first graduate because he received his diploma on August I 3> x839, just five days after the first formal meeting of Beta Theta Pi. Two other Betas graduated that same day, Founders David Linton, and Michael Clarkson Ryan. The diplpmas being handed out in alphabetical order, K nox preceded Linton and Ryan. 2. The first Beta to die was John C. Clendenin, Indiana ’46. His roommate at Bloomington was his Beta brother, William Edward Simpson, Indiana ’45. They both came from Paoli, Indiana; and both died in 1846 within the same week. There is a curious record in Beta Letters in the form of an extract from the minutes of the Miami chapter for June 8, 1843, which gives resolutions regarding the death of Thomas Greene Mitchell, Cincinnati ’40. The catalogue of Beta Theta Pi, how ever, gives the date of his death as 1879 and recounts his Civil W ar activi ties at Cincinnati. The old minute book of the Cincinnati chapter has no mention of the Miami resolutions, and, as all the men of 1843 are dead long since, the mystery o$ these resolutions may never be solved. Mitchell was president of the First Convention of Beta Theta Pi, held in Cincinnati, August 15, 1842. He also was the founder of the Transylvania chapter in 1842. 3. The first Beta to die in war was Daniel McCleary, Miami ’42.

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BETA LORE

He was a lieutenant in the United States Arm y in the Mexican War. This war began in 1846, just seven years after Beta Theta Pi was founded and when there were only 248 members all told. As it was generally believed in the North to be a war of aggression in the interests of slavery, it was not popular among Northern college men. In addition to Lieutenant McCleary, Betas who served in Mexico included Humphrey Marshall, Tran sylvania ’45, colonel of the First Kentucky Cavalry; Richard Thomas Mer rick, Jefferson ’43, captain U. S. Arm y; Isaac Smith McMicken, Jefferson ’42, major of the First Pennsylvania Volunteers; Samuel Henry Powe, Miami ’41, colonel of the Eleventh Mississippi Militia; and Paul Wideman Huntington Rawles, Michigan ’45, captain of Michigan Volunteers. Lieutenant M cCleary was distinguished for bravery on several occasions and Edward Bruce Stevens, Miami ’43, wrote about him in December, 1846. “ O f course you have not failed to observe that some of the brethren

T H E M U S IC R O O M A T N E B R A S K A

have been winning laurels at the storming of Monterey. To read the eulogisms in some of the Cincinnati papers on Dan McCleary you would rank him about next to General Taylor.” But there was only a short time to enjoy the honors for in 1847 McCleary died in Vera Cruz of yellow fever, and so became the first war victim in Beta Theta Pi. 4. The first Beta to cross the Allegheny Mountains was Archibald William Hamilton, Miami ’42. Following his graduation Hamilton went to the Harvard Law School for his professional training, and in 1843 founded the Harvard chapter, the Eta of Beta Theta Pi. A s he went East he bore with him a roving cpmmission to establish chapters wherever he saw an opening. He was a member of the committee to establish the Cincinnati chapter on April 8,

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1840. He was one of three members of the committee to secure alteration of the original pin by making part of it enamel so as to bring out the characters more clearly. In his senior year he was recorder of Alpha chapter. He received his bachelor of laws degree from Harvard in 1844 and began a career which seemed bright with promise. He was a member of the Kentucky legislature, 1851-1853, and was a successful lawyer in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, when he died in 1858. About the time he entered Harvard, wearing the first Beta badge ever seen in Cambridge, John Coon, Ohio ’44, went to Yale as an undergraduate, wearing the first Beta pin ever seen in New Haven. The latter graduated from Yale in 1847. 5. The first Beta to cross the Mississippi River was Charles Henry Hardin, Miami ’41. Founder Hardin’s home was near Columbia, Missouri. His uncle, William Jewell, whose name is perpetuated in the college at Liberty, Missouri, urged him to go East to college. On his way to Miami he rode horseback across Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana to Bloomington, where he stopped for a while at the new Indiana University, and thence rode on to Oxford, reaching there just as the plans for Beta Theta Pi were being formulated. On his first vacation trip homeward he wore the first Beta badge ever seen west of the “ Father of Waters.” Among his printed addresses is preserved his inaugural speech as president of the Miami chap ter. He became a prominent citizen of Missouri, serving in both branches of the State legislature and being governor of the state* 1875-1877. He founded Hardin College in his home town, Mexico. Samuel Taylor M ar shall, Miami ’40, was the second Beta to cross the great river, making his home in Keokuk, Iowa. 6. The first Beta college president was George Edmond Pierce, Western Reserve. It is an interesting story. The Third Convention of Beta Theta Pi was held in Hudson, Ohio, August 8, 1848, the exact ninth anniversary of the founding of the fraternity. Rivalry with Alpha Delta Phi was sharp. The “ Hudson Chapter,” as it was called, had an inspiration. It would elect the president of the college to membership and then have him preside over the public session of the convention. This would insure publicity in the Cleveland papers and make the “ Alphas” envious. It really was a case of “Ask Dad, he knows,” for one of “ P rexy’s” sons, Charles Rockwell Pierce, ’44, was a Beta, and, later, two others, William Henry Pierce, ’58, and John Pierce, ’50, followed him into the chapter. President Pierce accepted the bid, was initiated and was posted as to his convention duties. Then, to increase the discomfiture of the rivals, the “ Alphas” were invited to be present at the public exercises. They were game, all right, and attended in a body. Baird says, in Forty Years of Fraternity Legislation “ So far as we know, this is the first inter-fraternity event of which there is any record.” 7. The first Beta who was an immigrant was Joseph Ruggles Wilson, Jefferson ’44. He was born across the water, coming as an immigrant with his parents while still a lad. He was an active and aggressive member at Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, before the union of Washington and Jefferson. A number of his interesting chapter letters are published in Beta Letters. He became

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a Presbyterian minister of great prominence, a leader in the Southern Presbyterian Church of which he was stated clerk of the General Assembly for many years and its moderator in i879~i88o. He was a professor at Hampden-Sidney College from 1851 to 1855, and took much interest in the Zeta chapter there, founded the previous year by two Jefferson Betas, Charles Martin, ’46, and William Henry West, ’46. He cherished lofty ideals for Beta Theta Pi. While in college he reported to James Brown at Miami that the plans for chapters at Dickinson College and at Pittsburgh had not been pushed because “ we have been able to find none that would suit our ideas of what Betas ought to be.” But he stated that the Princeton chapter was under way. Dr. Wilson’s son, Woodrow Wilson, became President of the United States, a position for which his father, being foreign born, would have been ineligible. As President Wilson’s mother also was an immigrant, he had the strange fortune of becoming President of the United States without having any native American an cestry. Dr. Wilson was mentioned with appreciation in a most important article, “ Woodrow Wilson,” published in the June, 1924, Atlantic Monthly. It was from the pen of emeritus president Charles W . Eliot of Harvard. Among other interesting statements about Dr. J. R. Wilson was one that the Southern Presbyterian Church was organized in his house and church. 8. The first Beta to become a United States senator was James Harlan, De Pauw ’45. He cast his fortunes with the new State of Iowa, admitted to the Union in 1846. He was state superintendent of public instruction, 1847-1848, lay ing the foundations for the public schools of the commonwealth. Soon afterwards he became president of Iowa Wesleyan University and from that position he went to the United States Senate in 1855. He was a senator until 1865 and then became secretary of the interior, but in 1867 he began another six-year term as senator. From 1882 to 1885 he was chief justice of the Court of Commissioners on. the Alabama Claims. T o ward the end of his first term in the Senate he was joined by the second Beta United States Senator, Milton Slocum Latham, Jefferson ’45, represent ing the new state of California. 9. The first Beta to become associate justice of the United States Supreme Court was John Marshall Harlan, Centre ’50. He was appointed by President Hayes on March 29, 1877* Before he died in 1911 he had the experience of having on the Supreme bench with him at the same time three other members of Beta Theta Pi, they making up four out of nine justices, William Burnham Woods, Western Reserve ’42, was the second Beta justice, receiving his appointment from President Hayes on December 15, 1880. Other members of the fraternity who have had this distinguished honor are Stanley Mathews, Cincinnati 42, Joseph Rucker Lamar, Bethany ’77, David Josiah Brewer, Wesleyan ’ 53> W illis Van Devanter, De Pauw ’81, and Horace Harmon Lurton, Cumber land ’67. One of the notable occasions in the social history of Beta Theta Pi was the famous Harlan Dinner, given in Washington, February 6, 1891, in honor of John M. Harlan. One hundred and eighty-two were present. There is a good description of it in the Handbook of Beta Theta Pi, which says it was the most successful event of its kind in the history of the frater nity. Justice Harlan was what Betas used to like to call “ a true Greek.

A P A C K A G E O F O LD L E T T E R S

A PA C K A G E OF OLD LETTER S When the catalogue of 1881 was being prepared, the editors received many interesting letters. They came from all parts of the world. They came from members of Beta Theta Pi whose contact with the fraternity had been slight for many years. They came from those whose relationship with the fraternity life had never been anything but slight, owing to the conception of fraternity life which existed at the time of their college days. They brought to light valuable information regarding fraternity conditions and customs during the first four decades of the history of Beta Theta Pi. There were initiates in western colleges who never attended a meeting after initiation, because they went to an eastern college in the fall and there, perhaps, joined some other society, never dreaming of a day of possible

confusion owing to double membership. There were initiates taken from the alumni body in some institution where the fraternity had established a chapter. There were members who never felt the fraternity grip after the goodbye moment in the college town and who never had any letters or cir culars or any other communications regarding Beta Theta Pi in a day of small things, when administrative machinery was ineffective and chapter alumni organization a method unknown. Some of these letters appealed to the historic sense of William Raimond Baird. He laid them aside. In one of his days of periodic housecleaning he sent them to the “ archives.” That is, he mailed them to “ J. Cal Hanna, 336 W est Seventh Avenue, Columbus, Ohio.” They were sent by registered mail in an envelope of the “ New York Correspondence School of Law, 243 Broadway, New Y ork.” This school was one of Baird’s side issues in which he took a good deal of interest for a while. The regis-

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tration date on the envelope is “ New York, N. Y , Jan. 14, 1895, Reg. No. 7589.” On the time-stained brown envelope is endorsed in Hanna’s hand writing, “ Furnished Catalogue of 1881 by distinguished Betas.” One day in 1918 John Calvin Hanna, state inspector of high schools of Illinois, came down from his office in the State Capitol at Springfield, Illinois, to that of Francis W . Shepardson, Director of Registration and Education for the same commonwealth, bringing with him this package of letters. Hence this story: A postal card from the postmaster in an office in Bullitt County, Ken tucky, comes first. It refers to a Beta, long since passed on, as, indeed is true of all those from whom or about whom the letters are quoted. The card records, “ Mr. S. B. Barton lives near Her and is teachin or Caring on A School. He is A Cripil man one leg very Short and Goes on A Crutch. Apears to Be A nice Clever Respectabel Gentleman. Gets His mail Her at this office.” The fraternity in 1879 established a chapter at the University of Mis sissippi, taking over the last surviving chapter of Alpha Kappa Phi. Baird was working at that time upon the first edition of his American College Fraternities. Evidently he sought information for that book. He re ceived an answer from Alexander Davidson, dated at Oxford, Mississippi, March 18, 1879. It said, “ W e communicate only with our head chapter and have no catalogue as yet. As soon as one appears I will send it. In the meanwhile I will forward your letters to head chapter for the desired information. Our archives show the existence of six other chapters be sides ours but their existence is only casually mentioned. W ill S. Carleton, the author of Farm Legends, is, I see from one of his poems, a member of this fraternity. He may be able to enlighten you as to our Northern chapters.” Baird followed up the clues. He records that Alpha Kappa Phi was founded at Centre College, Kentucky, about 1858 and had chapters at LaGrange College, Cumberland University, Bethel College, Oakland Col lege and perhaps others. All records were lost in the Civil War. The Mississippi chapter, founded in an earlier year possibly and re-established in 1867, joined Beta Theta Pi in 1879, as stated above. As for W ill Carl ton, the poet is proudly claimed as a member of Delta Tau Delta, and, if he ever belonged to an organization known as Alpha Kappa Phi, it prob ably was a local society. That combination of Greek letters has been used more than once, a law fraternity being so named. There is a letter from Virginia which contains a short story of human service and sacrifice. It tells how Betas played a part in other wars than the great one which closed in 1918. “ George Washington Wooding graduated at Hampden-Sidney College between the years 1856 and 1859. I am impressed with the idea that a Mr. Comfort was awarded the first honor in his class and George was offered the second but declined^ it. I am also satisfied in the belief that he took the Speaker’s Medal in his so ciety, Beta Theta Pi. A fter leaving Hampden-Sidney College he took a law course at the University of Virginia, then returned home and practiced law in Danville until the breaking out of the war. He took part in or ganizing a battery and entered service in April, 1861, as Second Lieutenant in the Danville Artillery, the company he helped to form. His company

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served with conspicuous gallantry with Stonewall Jackson in West V ir ginia campaigns and took part in all his brilliant victories of 1861 and 1862. A t the reorganization of the Danville Artillery in 1862, Lieutenant Wooding was almost unanimously elected captain over his former com mandant. Captain Wooding commanded the Danville Artillery up to the memorable battle of Fredericksburg, when General Burnside met with de feat and General Lee achieved a great victory, December 13, 1862. In the flats in front of our line there was a mound of elevation which had to be held, as success in a great measure depended upon that point being held. A fter two batteries had been disabled and driven from this elevation, Captain Wooding was ordered to take hold. With usual coolness and daring Captain Wooding ordered his battery forward, took and temporarily held the position, and drove back the enemy. But they were reinforced and the battery was disabled, the company cut to pieces, and Captain Wooding mortally wounded. His guns that went into action with four horses each were gotten out with only one horse to a gun and the same to the caissons. Captain Wooding’s mangled body was carried to the residence of a Mr. Juby, three miles from Fredericksburg, where he calmly awaited the end. He died February 1, 1863, in the twenty-fourth year of his age. Captain Wooding was a consistent member of the Presbyterian Church, was a Christian gentleman, and one of the most promising young men of this day. It is a source of pride to me to record the fact that I have never heard his name mentioned except in praise.” Another letter from a Hampden-Sidney man, Charles Scott Venable, ’42, is dated at Charlottesville, Virginia. March 16, 1880. Dr. Venable was initiated in 1851, twenty-nine years before he wrote the letter. The figures indicate how Beta Theta Pi is growing in years. Dr. Venable was a prom inent member of the faculty of the University of Virginia for many years, being chairman of that body from 1869 to 1873. His record is familiar to students of Beta history. The letter of 1880 is recalled for one sentence, “ P. S. I was initiated in the order by Judge West of Ohio, the late candidate for Governor I believe against Bishop.” William Henry West, thus mentioned, was a member of the Washington-Jefferson chapter in the class of 1846, transferred to Hampden-Sidney College and founded the Zeta chapter there, Venable’s name being eighth on the list of members. W est aided or was aided by Charles Martin, ’42, of his own chapter in getting the new chapter started, Martin being a member of the faculty of Hampden-Sidney. Both came from Jefferson College, although, in Beta Theta Pi parlance, members of the two chapters which afterwards united when Jefferson joined Washington are assigned to “ Washington-Jefferson.” Judge West, as he was known in Ohio, was a man of great prominence in his day. From 1858 to 1866 he was a member of the Ohio legislation, at first in the Assembly and later in the Senate. Then he became attorney gen eral and then a justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio. He lost his sight and for years was known as “ the blind man eloquent.” He was defeated for governor in one of the periodical Republican slump years. He was an enthusiastic Beta and loved to gather with the younger men and tell of the golden days gone by. In “ The Service Stars of Gold,” an article printed in a volume of the magazine, it was necessary to strike out one name in a second printing, be

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cause the. individual mentioned was found to be living. A t a home coming celebration for returning soldiers in Springfield, Illinois, in June, 1919, flags bearing gold stars were shot from rockets and afterwards’ when found, were given to the parents or friends of the soldiers thus honored. One of these gold star flags was claimed by the individual for whom it was designed, he having been reported dead by an error. In the Civil W ar the same sort of mistake was made, judging from a letter written by Joshua T. Owen, Washington-Jefferson ’45. There had been a report that he was dead. He wrote B aird : I can not account for the error in regard to my existence in any other way than that, after the battle of the Wilderness in 1864 I was reported killed and a lengthy obituary of me was published in the Philadelphia

T H E LO U N G E A N D S T A IR W A Y A T N E B R A S K A

papers. M y friends rejoiced at my contradiction of the report, but my enemies insist upon it to this day that I was killed and I have no right to take part in mundane affairs.” In another letter, written the day before the one just quoted, Owen said : “ I hasten to respond to your kind note of the fifth instant. It was the first intimation I have received of the continued existence of the Greek society. I have had but little opportunity to maintain cordial relations of amity with my fellow Greeks, because at the time of my connection with the society it was small in numbers and influence, at least so far as our own chapter was concerned, and we had comparatively little intercourse with other chapters.” But both letters he signed “ Yours in — kai— ” like a veteran Beta. It was not the first time that such a thing came to the attention of William Raimond Baird. Again and again he was struck by the remarkable fidelity

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of older men who cherished with tender recollection the association of college days and felt their hearts warmed anew at the shrine of Beta Theta Pi. This surprise at discovery that the fraternity was alive and had grown strong was a real one. The lack of knowledge was everywhere. Few individuals knew much about college fraternities before Baird published his first edition in 1879. Few knew much about the fraternity to which they belonged. An occasional person found out what he could. But, as late as 1880, the knowledge possessed by any individual about Beta Theta Pi was slight. Even the “ shark” knew little except what he dug gut of “ Baird’s book,” or extracted from M ajor Ransom or some other posted fraternity leader. It is not surprising that many members never heard anything about the fraternity after they left the college town at the end of the spring term. If one of them went to an Eastern college and joined another society, it was even worse. An illustration is afforded by another letter. It is from Dr. Theodore Thorton Munger, Western Reserve, ’51. He says: “ My relation to Beta Theta Pi is, or was, as follow s: In 1846-7 I was in Hudson, Ohio, first in the preparatory department and then (1847) *n the Freshman class for two terms, leaving in the spring and going to Yale where I graduated in 1851. A few days before I left Hudson I was taken into Beta Theta Pi by vote, though I never attended a meeting. M y only participation in the doings of the society was as follow s: It was an annual custom with the society to celebrate the return of spring by taking a walk in the country in the company of such young ladies as they might invite. The society comprised the best men in the college and ladies invited were the prettiest in the town. I think I must have been elected the night pre vious to the walk. However it be, the walk was my initiation and it was the happiest moment of my life up to that time. The kindly notice of the seniors, their fraternal greetings, and congratulations of the young ladies whom I adored at a distance, the walk in such company, all together made a profound impression upon my mind and heart. I hoped to return to Hud son, but my father decided to send me to Yale, his own college, greatly to my regret. M y home was in Homer, Cortland County, New York. I think I was the only freshman taken into the society up to that date; but I may be mistaken. There were some brilliant men in the society at that time, the Paynes, Palmer, Dr. Pierce, who died in the war, I think, and, if I mistake not, the late Professor Newberry of Columbia College, and others. On coming to Yale I joined Psi Upsilon and, as it is a rival society in some colleges, I supposed that my relations with Beta Theta Pi lapsed by virtue of entering that society. I am glad if it is not so. The memory of my brief relation to the society is a delightful one; and I have also a great respect for the society so far as I knew it. I am often claimed as a brother, and I always respond. I think, though I may be mistaken, that my friend and classmate, General Noble, late Secretary of the Interior, was a member at Marietta. I thank you for your letter, and if I cannot sign myself your brother in Beta Theta Pi, I can thank you for reminding me that I was once a member of it.” The reference to Professor Newberry of Columbia is to John Strong Newberry, Western Reserve ’46. It is rather interesting to note that in the Michigan chapter in the same college generation was John Stoughton Newberry, Michigan ’47. The former was professor of geology and nat-

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ural history in Columbia from 1857 to 1866, when he became professor of geology, holding the position until he died in 1892. The latter was a prominent citizen of Detroit, a member of congress, a philanthropist, a dis tinguished lawyer. It is a coincidence worthy of note that the recently published volume of “ Beta Letters” contains communications from both of the Newberry s. In passing it should be said that there were a good many instances of one day membership, similar to that recorded by Mr. Munger. Candidates were initiated at the end of the spring term, so that they would be fullfledged members for the opening of the college in the fall. Sometimes they were taken from the graduating class of a preparatory department. If it turned out, as it sometimes did, that parents decided upon a change of college during the summer vacation, the “ active” membership of

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the individual was limited to the single day in which the initiation took place. There was an illustration of this in the Wooster chapter as late as 1885, where a “ senior prep” was initiated the night before commence ment. The next fall he went to Yale, some years before Beta Theta Pi had a chapter there. He never attended a meeting of Beta Theta Pi. All his college life was connected with Yale. He became a member of the revived chapter of Alpha Delta Phi in that institution. There are many other interesting letters in the package. Several are from Matthew Stanley Quay, long a political power in Pennsylvania. Peleg Emory Aldrich, William Baker and George Hoadly write about the Harvard chapter in 1843. To their notes some are added by William Ware Peck, a jurist out in Wyoming. Albinus Nance, then governor of Nebraska, and James A. Beaver, later governor of Pennsylvania, contribute interest ing facts. One of Beaver’s letters says:

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“ I was a delegate to the Chicago National Republican Convention and was chairman of the Pennsylvania delegation. By the way some of the pleasantest experiences of the Convention were meeting with old Greeks from other delegations. There were at least half a dozen and perhaps many more. I recall McClung of Ohio, Wilson of West Virginia and one of the Texas delegation. I was sorry I could not get to the Baltimore Beta Convention.” There are touching letters from young Virginians who gave up every thing to join the Confederacy, not counting even their lives dear when it came to the cause for which they fought. But, whoever the writer and whatever the theme, one sentiment is everywhere: “ I’m glad I’m a Beta.” They did not use just exactly that phrasing back in 1880. But what they did write meant the same thing.

COLLEGES OF 1839 Among the papers of the late William Raimond Baird there was found one which contained a copy of an article published in the American Quar terly Register for February, 1839. L was headed “ List of Students at Colleges in the United States for the Academical year 1838-9.” This list is extremely interesting for more reasons than one. There probably are some omissions' One or two old colleges like William and M ary and Hampden-Sidney are not found, and some of the western colleges, new in 1839, do not appear. Ohio University at Athens and Granville College (now Denison, chartered in 1830) are missing. The list is val uable as a working basis for some Betas who want to make an investigation to discover exactly what institutions there were in August, 1839, when our fraternity was born. It will be recalled that founder Charles H. Hardin, on his journey in search of an education stopped for a while at Indiana University in Bloomington before going on to Miami. But here is the list: (The institutions are arranged according to their seniority, and the pre siding officer of each is named. In colleges, those students only are men tioned who are in a course of study for the degree of bachelor of arts. The list is as full as we could make it from annual catalogues, or authentic accounts which we have been able to obtain.) H a r v a r d U n i v e r s i t y , Massachusetts. Hon. Josiah Quincy, LL.D ., Presi dent. Founded, 1(338./^Seniors, 63; Juniors, 44; Sophomores, 54; Freshmen, 55. Total, 216. Y a l e C o l l e g e , Connecticut. Rev. Jeremiah Day, D.D., LL.D ., President. Founded, 1700.'^ Seniors, 95; Juniors, 102; Sophomores, 106; Fresh men, 108. Total, 411. C ollege of N ew Jersey. Rev. James Carnahan, D.D., President. Founded, 1746. Seniors, 73; Juniors, 85; Sophomores, 55; Freshmen, 17. Total, 230. C o l u m b i a C o l l e g e , New York. Hon. William A. Duer, LL.D ., Presi dent. Founded, 1754. Seniors, 34; Juniors, 36; Sophomores, 39; Freshmen, 47. Total, 146. B r o w n U n i v e r s i t y , Rhode Island. Rev. Francis Wayland, D.D., Presi dent. Founded, 1764. Seniors, 38; Juniors, 55; Sophomores, 41; Freshmen, 43. Total, 177.

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New Hampshire. Rev. Nathan Lord, D .D ., Presi dent. Founded, 1769. ^ Sen iors, 61; Juniors, 56; Sophomores, 83; Freshmen, 101. Total, 301. R u t g e r s C o l l e g e , New Jersey. Rev. Phillip Milledoler, D.D., President. Founded, 1770. In the Senior, Junior, Sophomore and Freshman classes, 76. D i c k i n s o n C o l l e g e , Pennsylvania. Rev. John P. Durbin, M .A ., President. Founded, 1783. Seniors, 18; Juniors, 22; Sophomores, 32; Freshmen, 22. Total, 94. U n i v e r s i t y o f V e r m o n t . Rev. John Wheeler, D.D., President. Founded 1791. Seniors, 34; Juniors, 25; Sophomores, 20; Freshmen, 23. To tal, 102. W i l l i a m s C o l l e g e , Massachusetts. Rev. Mark Hopkins, M.D., D.D., Presi dent. Founded, 1793. Seniors, 37; Juniors, 31; Sophomores, 38; Freshmen, 29. Total, 135. B o w d o i n C o l l e g e , Maine. Rev. William Allen, D.D., President. Founded, 1794. Seniors, 28; Juniors, 31; Sophomores, 35; Freshmen, 20. To tal, 114. U n i o n C o l l e g e , New York. Rev. Eliphalet Nott, D.D., LL.D ., President. Founded, 1795. Seniors, 108; Juniors, 87; Sophomores, 42; Fresh men, 20. Total, 257. M i d d l e b u r y C o l l e g e , Vermont. Rev. Joshua Bates, D.D., President. Founded, L89Q.l$B<$eniors, 4 1; Juniors, 35; Sophomores, 28; Freshmen, 19. Total, 123. J e f f e r s o n C o l l e g e , Pennsylvania. Rev. Matthew Brown, D.D., Presi dent. Founded, iQq&jWSeniors, 47; Juniors, 42; Sophomores, 35; Freshmen, 35. Total, 157. W a s h i n g t o n C o l l e g e , Pennsylvania. Rev. David M ’Conaughy, D.D., Presf p1' i d e n t . Founded, 1806. Seniors, 11; Juniors, 23; Sophomores, 12; Freshmen, 10. Total, 56. H a m i l t o n C o l l e g e , New York. Rev. Joseph Penny, D.D., President. Founded, 1812. Seniors, 19; Juniors, 2 1; Sophomores, 19; Fresh men, 23. Total, 82. W a t e r v i l l e C o l l e g e , Maine. Rev. Robert E. Pattison, D.D., President. Founded, 1820. Seniors, 19; Juniors, 16; Sophomores, 16; Freshmen, 22. Total, 73. A m h e r s t C o l l e g e , Massachusetts. Rev. Heman Humphrey, D.D., Presi dent. Founded, 1821. Seniors, 57; Juniors, 48; Sophomores, 47; Freshmen, 37. Total, 189. W a s h i n g t o n C o l l e g e , Connecticut. Rev. Silas Totten, D.D., President. Founded, 1824. Seniors, 18; Juniors, 18; Sophomores, 21; Freshmen, 24. Total, 81. M i a m i U n i v e r s i t y , . Ohio. Rev. Robert H. Bishop, D.D., President. Founded, p824.'^°!Seniors, 28; Juniors, 29; Sophomores, 32; Freshmen, 52. Total, 141. W e s t e r n R e s e r v e C o l l e g e , Ohio. Rev. George E. Pierce, D.D., Presi dent. Founded, 1826. Seniors, 8; Juniors, 21; Sophomores, 14; Freshmen, 26. Total, 69. D

artm outh

C ollege,

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U n i v e r s i t y , Connecticut. Rev. Wilbur Fisk, D.D., President. Founded, 1831. Seniors, 27; Juniors, 24; Sophomores, 45; Freshmen, 43. Total, 139. M a r i o n C o l l e g e , Missouri. Rev. William S. Potts, M.A., President. Founded, 1831. Seniors, 1; Juniors, 7; Sophomores, 6; Freshmen, 12. Total, 26. L a f a y e t t e C o l l e g e , Pennsylvania. Rev. George Junkin, D.D., President. Founded, 1832. ,0 Seniors, 11; Juniors, 13; Sophomores, 15; Freshmen, 14. Total, 53. M a r s h a l l C o l l e g e , Pennsylvania. Rev. F. A. Rauch, D.P., President. Founded, 1836. Seniors, 7; Juniors, 8; Sophomores, 17; Freshmen, 20. Total, 52. W

esleyan

COM M ENCEM ENT H ALL A T B ETH A N Y A B E T A M E M O R IA L

Chapter I X — Chapter L i f e and Lore

THE GOLDEN LEAGUE E lb r id g e V a n S y c k e l,

Rutgers,

’ 73

When a boy not more than fifteen or sixteen years old, one of my school mates and I read in one of the Oliver Optic’s books for boys an account of a number of boys on shipboard who formed for some purpose a society called “ No Chain League,” whose badge consisted of a small chain, every link of which represented a member. W e were fascinated by the story, and with a taste for the occult and mysterious, so common to boys of that age, formed later at Blair Academy, Blairstown, New Jersey, together with a dozen or

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more students a social and literary society called in imitation of the first, “The Golden League.” The seeds of this society, planted about October or November, 1868, soon after blossomed and later bore good fruit. Our regular meetings were held weekly from January, 1869, to July of the same year in a fine large vacant apartment in the southwest corner of Blair Hall, whose principal, Professor Stevens, favored our efforts and protected us from raids on the part of the other students whose curiosity grew apace with the length of our ceremonies and literary exercises. “ The Golden League” was, of course, secret, strictly so, not unlike, though not so elaborate as similar societies of the present day. Our badge at first was a large tin five-pointed star with the letters “ G. L .” painted thereon in red paint. By reason of its unshapely character, its keen edge and needle-like points continually tearing our clothing or our skin and flesh, this design was maintained but a short time, when pins, made expressly by jewelers and not tinsmiths, were worn with letters “ G. L .” engraved upon

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the smoothed face of a dime, surrounded by a wide and heavy wreath, the reverse side still bearing the words “ One Dime,” as when the piece served as a coin and not a badge. W e had, too, a secret alphabet of geometrical design, grips, passwords, signs, etc., complete. A paper, too, was published— not a printed paper, but one written up monthly, about the size of a large foolscap sheet— only one sheet, which was passed around from one to the other till its contents were known almost by heart. This paper gave offense to some of the non society students who forthwith put into being a rival paper for two or three jnonths, which, as I was editor of our own, was, I am competent to say, rather better edited than our own, and contained articles whose pungency made us wince. A rival society was started but soon died. The opposition, how ever, did not last long in any shape, for in July we returned to our respective homes for the long summer vacation, most of us to enter colleges in the following September. Princeton received the greatest number, myself being the only one to enter Rutgers. Mr. Louis B. La Tourrette, not yet prepared to enter Rut gers, attended the grammar school at New Brunswick, after a course at Blair Academy, for two or three years longer and finally entered commercial life. He became, while at the grammar school, a member of Alpha Sigma Chi by virtue of his former connection with the “ G. L ./’ and he attended our meetings occasionally. He departed this life in August, 1876. His name will be found in our Alpha Sigma Chi lists as the Class of ’76, although he was never actually in college, but was on the point of entering when he left as above stated. His name does not appear in the Beta Theta Pi catalogues because he died before the union of the two societies. It was our intention for a short time after the origin of Alpha Sigma Chi to extend it to preparatory schools like Blair Academy, the Grammar School, and similar institutions; but fortunately this scheme was abandoned, as likewise a plan to include “ G. L .” at Princeton with Alpha Sigma Chi at Rutgers. In September, 1871, Ellis Dunn Thomson, like La Tourette and myself from Bound Brook, entered Cornell University. He too, had been a strong and active “ G. L .” at the Academy at the same time with us. Circum stances at Cornell were such that our society did not make its appearance there till the autumn of 1873, or thereabouts, although our existence sub rosa ^for some time had been maintained. Brother Thomson, however, was in constant correspondence with our chapter at New Brunswick, the Alpha, and withstood repeated solicitations from other fraternities which, of course, knew nothing of the existence of ours. I entered Rutgers College in September 1870, but joined no fraternity, although invited by that one whose name, like ours, consists of three words. Their invitation I respectfully declined, and I was not again molested by the Greek-letter society system until my Senior year, when another fraternity opened negotiations which at that time were out of the question as far as I was concerned. My first year passed with no thought of college societies or similar matters. Hard study and close application to work made demands upon me that left little time for other affairs. If ,.my mind did occasionally roam over kindred matters, it reverted immediately to our little “ G. L .” of the Academy. During the summer of 1871 I did consult with Brothers

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Thomson and La Tourette, especially the former, as to extending the Acad emy society, he being about to enter Cornell and I soon to return to Rutgers. W e finally agreed to do all possible in that direction. On my return I learned that William P. Watson, a recent student at Blair Academy, not attending, however, when I was there, had entered R-Utgers College in the class of 1875. I immediately sought him out, asking him among other things whether he belonged to the “ G. L .” He replied that he did not. However, he knew of the society; that a few members were there while he was in attendance, but that their meetings were finally aban doned. Keeping him in view, nevertheless, it was not a difficult matter, on further acquaintance, to broach the subject to him, in which he cordially acquiesced, and keeping his eye on several in his own class, soon reported Charles L. D. Washburn as a very desirable third person for so important an under taking. I was then living with the family of Mr. Jeptha Runyan, a grocer, on the northeast corner of Neilson and Hiram Streets, New Brunswick, to

which place Watson and Washburn soon removed. W e three were the only student lodgers in the house. To Watson I administered a sort of oath and obligation, something similar to that in “ G. L .” and we, together, admin istered the same to Washburn, holding our first regular meeting October 24, 1871, in a large back room (my room) in the aforementioned house. It may not be generally known by the later members of the society that at first, for several months, it was called by us Sigma Chi, the Alpha not being pre fixed until later learning of an older society, when we were forced to pre fix as stated. From October till January or February we made no attempt to increase our numbers and influence, passing the time in faithful efforts to prepare and put into operation a constitution, with by-laws and all the necessary adjuncts of such an organization as ours. Meetings were held regularly every week, with numerous special meetings intervening. W e worked hard, night and day, as far as our regular college work could allow, using for guid ance in the matter “ A Handbook of Friendly Societies,” an English Dvork mainly on the insurance and beneficiary features of Oddfellowship and kin dred societies, and the constitution of the St. Andrew’s society of New York ✓

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This society was a Scottish Club of prominence. Much, too, was utilized from old “ G. L .,” more than Brothers Watson and Washburn were aware of, as they had never been connected with that society. B y New Y ear’s, 1872, our work was accomplished far enough to admit other members. Mention must be made of a certain clerk whose initials were J. V. engaged in Mr. Runyon’s and who roomed in a small room adjacent to ours on the third floor. I rather think that for a short time he roomed with Brother Washburn. Becoming suspicious of our mysterious and secret meetings he watched our every movement with feline cunning. So that fear ing trouble or disclosure, Brother Watson and I left this place and engaged accommodations at Mrs. Wilson’s, 73 Church Street, Brother Washburn remaining for a time. A t this new place we found W . F. Anderson and P. F. Pockman, who after due siege were obliged to submit to the inevitable and enter our society. Bearing in mind that hitherto no student had suspected our existence in spite of our regular meetings and conferences, the question may be asked: How did we impart the fact of our existence to such as were asked to unite with us. In this regard we proceeded with a cunning befitting Jesuits and Scimitar orders. Deciding upon a desirable candidate, one or two of us four, no more, would form his acquaintance and interview him on the subject of societies in general, showing how none of the existing ones fulfilled all essen tial conditions, and ask him whether he would be willing to originate such a new society. If he consented we would actually enter upon the prepara tion of an outline of what was and was not proper. Then, when there was no probability of mistake, and the candidate in honor bound and ready to go to all lengths, we, or at least the one or two delegated for the purpose, would quietly inform him under solemn pledges to secrecy that such a society already existed and ask him to enter. So completely did this plan succeed that in not one instance did we fail to secure our man and frequently to his surprise and bewilderment. In this way Brothers Babbitt, Vannier, 'Ring, Stephens, and others were approached and finally captured for Alpha Sigma Chi. Only one of our members ever played us false, a student of the class of 1874, who after joining in good faith we believe, despaired of ultimate success and resigned, joining sometime subsequently another society. He is not now living. “ Nil de mortuis nisi bonum.” Brothers King and Vannier graduated in 1872 and Brother Stephens and myself a year later. Our society continued to meet at 67 Church Street and for a long time at the residence of Brothers Pockman and Anderson on Livingston Avenue. Brother La Tourette, by the way, was admitted by me at Bound Brook by special permission of the chapter and occasionally at tended meetings. The books, constitution, records, minutes, rolls and secret paraphernalia, were taken by me to my home in Bound Brook during the long summer vacation and kept in safety till the reopening of college in the fall. Y et our existence did not become generally known. Even the member who, as before stated, resigned and joined another society did not, we had reason to believe, reveal us. Sometime, however, in the early part of 1874 (as I was informed, having left by graduation in 1873) suspicions began to form that an organization existed which influenced college elections, be cause of some eight or ten votes which in some way effected a college elec tion. In such an election a previous canvass usually will agree with the

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final result in a remarkably close degree; yet in place of the customary difference of one or two votes, here was a difference of some eight or ten. Some indiscretions, too, probably led other students to more than suspect our existence, and by June, 1874, the expectation was general that a new society would make public appearance. Our history since that time is open pioperty. I forbear to follow it up. Likewise our union with Beta Theta Pi in 1879, a most wise measure, to the credit principally, almost entirely, of Brother William Raimond Baird of the Stevens chapter. [From a paper in the archives of the Rutgers chapter by No. 1 on the chapter roll, counted a founder of Alpha Sigma Chi.]

If anyone should ask who was the real founder of this chapter, the an swer is easy. The man to whose initiative, beyond all else, it owes its exist ence and its early date, whose character shaped it and whose zestful, supqrabounding spirit still, even today, pervades it, was Walter B. Gunnison, of the class of ’75. Oh, of course there were others. If he had not found congenial and able helpers he could have accomplished nothing, for no man can do anything worthwhile alone. It was really, as time has shown, an extraor dinary group of men who started the tradition and spirit of the chapter— and of the college; for these , the chapter spirit and college spirit, were born together, grew up together, and can hardly be distinguished in retrospect. From the very beginning and through all our history— and I say it with out the least disparagement of others— the same men who created and built

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up this chapter are the men who built up and supported and developed this college, and made possible all that is now standing and rising on the hill. O f our college presidents, three were from this fraternity and three others were bound to it by the closest ties of kinship. O f our board of trustees, through a long period of steady growth, fully half were members of the chap ter. A t present, both the President of the University and the President of the Board of Trustees are from this chapter; not only that, but the predeces sor of each was a Beta. And in all this there was not the slightest trace of fraternity politics or any hint of favoritism. Each man was chosen absolute ly on his m erits; not even detraction has ever ventured to suggest anything else. And this identity of the history and service of the chapter with the history and service of the college is its great tradition. To this its distinctive character is mainly due. It has never been a separate or parasitic growth on the college tree, but always a part of it— -a great, fruitful, living bough. To me it is a source of no small pride that my name is somewhat intimately associated with this remarkable group. But among us in those early days, W . B., as we called him, was always the leader— the mainspring of every action, the impelling force of every undertaking. And now his big, burly form no longer casts a shadow anywhere on earth, but has itself become the shadow of a thought and his hearty, persuasive voice rings only as an echo in the mind. It is not strange that the realities of today, so full of life and substance, become tomorrow the fig ment that we call a memory— the very stuff that dreams are made of— while the things of the future, mere hopes and proj ects and things as yet unborn, gather substance and rise up around us and become the only reality? These are an old man’s thoughts, no doubt; but they fill my soul as I look around me here — and when I look out on the campus and see the shapes that loom there where of old nothing was. It is a great thing to have lived in the upward beat of time, to see splendid hopes fulfilled, to sit in the shade of noble trees that one has helped to plant and water long ago; yet I doubt that there is more of the joy of living on the hill today, amid all these growing glories of dreams made real, than in those bare, early years when we and the college were young together and all was yet to do— and if now I were given my choice, I am sure I still would choose to be a pioneer rather than an inheritor. Well, when the foundations of this chapter were laid such thoughts were far away. I was still in my teens— and at that, two years older than the col lege. This was already a place where if you would, you might obtain a sound education and a degree; but when, in the fall of 1871, W alter Gun nison first set foot on the hill, it was as bare of tradition as of trees and

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buildings. Even then the old College Hall crowned its summit, and beautiful H en in g Library had just lifted its slated head close by; here and there a stunted mountain ash added a splash of color with its scarlet berries; but of college life and college spirit there was as yet not a spark. These words were no part of our vocabulary; we scarcely understood their meaning until W alter Gunnison came. But when Walter entered he threw open all the win dows; a fresh breeze of enthusiasm blew in; the leaves of our books began to flutter; we all waked up with a start, and things began to happen. What a change he wrought in the college,, including the ushering in of a new ad ministration^ I cannot here relate, but only what concerns this chapter. W alter had originally expected to enter Tufts College, and had been pledged in advance by the fraternity which we then called Zeta Psi (zeeta zi).

T H E ST . L A W R E N C E C A M P U S

When, much to his disappointment, adverse circumstances compelled him to enter St. Lawrence instead, he at once resolved to establish a chapter of that fraternity here. To that end he associated with himself Leslie A. Lee, ’72, and Foster L. Backus, Charles L. Simmons, and Fremont W . Spicer, of the class of ’73. These were the orginal Five Lyres— a name which they themselves interpreted in a musical sense, but which outsiders chose to spell in a less flattering fashion. They had scarcely any organization, but adopted a grip which has been transmitted to the chapter and to each member was assigned a special finger of the hand as a symbol. The lyres were arranged in a quincunx, the rest blue but the central lyre in scarlet and understood to represent the thumb. A s to who was the “ scarlet liar ’ there has been much speculation, but the secret was well kept and is now lost forever. Anyhow, the Five Lyres failed their purpose. Not even Walter

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could interest Zeta Psi in the prospect at St. Lawrence, and by 1873 except Walter were graduated and dispersed, with nothing accomplished These men were afterwards adopted into this chapter, but be it noted, they were in no sense its founders. They were only a picturesque episode, which presently vanished, leaving no trace except a vague tradition. Walter was the sole connecting link. But W . B., undaunted, began all over again, now with a view to per manence. He was then a junior, and I a sophomore; the senior class was almost non-existent, but his class numbered eight and mine eleven. Out of this material, utterly ignoring freshmen, he proceeded to organize the very notable— and indeed, notorious— P. D. Society, the real beginning of this chapter; and from that day to this there has been no break in the continuity,

O U T D O O R T H E A T R E A T ST. L A W R E N C E

no lapse of zeal, no cessation of effort. The six original P.D .’s were Walter Gunnison, prime mover in the enterprise, Marshall Doolittle, Lelon Doo little, and A . A . Smith, of the class of ’75 and Ledyard Hale and myself of the class of ’76. Clarence Lee of 76, and Frank Cleveland and Nelson Robinson ’77, were soon added to our number, and shortly after came J. C. Willson, a surly but amazingly efficient worker. Thus began that noble list that now runs into the hundreds, and if I go on mentioning names 1 shall find myself reciting an endless catalogue of trustees, officers, pro fessors, and benefactors of St. Lawrence, who, with the help of others of like spirit, have made and still are making this the Acropolis of the North Country. But let me go back to the time when all these threads were still unwoven on the loom of dreams. By the favor of the president of the college we ob-

T H E A B B O T T -Y O U N G M E M O R IA L T w o views of the interior of the chapter hall in the beautiful memorial temple at St. Lawrence

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tained the lease, for ninety-nine years or some such matter, of a room in the topmost story of the college building. And here let me remark that the faculty and the fraternities at St. Lawrence have always worked hand in hand, in almost unbroken harmony. Our room had been used for the storage of antique apparatus, and first, as an old song has it, we “ lugged the instru ments out one by one, the air pump first and herbarium.” Next we hired a trustful carpenter— I can’t imagine how, for our means were in the reverse ratio of our zeal— stripped off our coats and with his aid built and furnished the first home of this chapter, away up in the “ southwest corner, nearest the sky,”— and it often seems to me that half the joyous memories of my life cluster round that place; but to rehearse them here tonight is quite out of the question, for they would fill a volume. To continue in the words of the song—-“ And then they stole all they could get, and they locked it up and they’ve got it yet.” Our pilferings were mainly from our own homes, but I am sure the steward’s store-room suffered, and the college woodpile— for though we always bought a little pile of our own, it was simply amazing how it lasted. And let this especially be remembered: we always respected our chapter room like a home—-almost like a shrine; we never fouled our nest. In this place we did much in dead earnest and much in sport; there was plenty of riotous fun in that secluded chamber, barred with a door worthy of the Bastile. But whatever might happen elsewhere, there was here no drinking on any occasion, nor was any vulgarity tolerated in the chapter. Such was the unwritten law. I think the president had asked us to promise as much as this— and the pledge was never violated. A fter that, for many years, little happened in college, for better or worse, in which we did not play a leading part. Then it was that the college spirit was born and the college tradition grew, and I think we may claim to share with the strong earnest man, who was then its president, the honor of shap ing the character of St. Lawrence. O f course his potent influence molded us too, in no small degree— though he did not approve of all our doings. Indeed, we were making history in those days, though we did not realize it then; and within the chapter our own traditions grew lustily. To men tion— pardon me— a few of my own contributions, I composed the first ritual, wrote the first songs, devised the chapter name system, invented the chap ter yell, and was always right on the firing-line in every new venture. The rest were just as active each in his own way. And a little later with truly youthful audacity, I took a leading hand in drafting, unasked, a new constitution for Alpha Sigma Chi. For, despite all our eloquence and all our craft, Zeta Psi finally spurned us— for which error of judgment in the end we have owed her much grati tude, since this repulse ultimately became the means of our winning a place in the great fraternity which we would have chosen beyond all others, Beta Theta Pi. But for the moment we took what we could get and became a chapter of Alpha Sigma Chi, then a small but not especially hopeful prop osition. When we received a copy of its constitution we did not like it at all, so we proceeded forthwith to draft a new one, and Nelson Robinson and I were sent to our first fraternity convention, at Rutgers, with strict orders to have it adopted. And we did— just how I can hardly explain, but my memory is that we did not permit a single amendment. And within two or three years we had animated the whole fraternity with our own spirit—something quite different from the spirit we had found them imbibing at

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Rutgers. W e ruthlessly suppressed an unpromising chapter— good, chapters or none, was our motto. W e established another in Maine, of which our own chapter became the sponsor. The enterprise of the now growing fraternity began to excite comment. It chanced that the great fraternity to which we now belong, then located mainly in the West, was at that time looking eastward for new conquests, . seeking to become what today it is— not a sectional but a nation-wide brother hood. Our small but energetic group of chapters attracted favorable attention; it seemed to offer the needful opening. They investigated; they liked us, and we them; and in 1879, after negotiations in which W alter Gunnison and his life long friend, William Raimond Baird of Stevens, were dominant factors, we were all received into this greater brotherhood, already forty years old and of high pres tige. Its age has since been more than doubled, and its prestige has grown in like proportion— but, much as I have claimed for my chapter, for that I will claim only a very moderate share of credit. Y et this I will s a y : never for a moment have we desired a change or ceased to thank our earlier love that she so haughtily dis missed our suit— and many a love-lorn swain has had a similar experience, I fancy. So at last, like old Odysseus, after all our adventurous voyaging we found G U N N IS O N M E M O R IA L our port ; and the rest another voice than C H A P E L A T ST . L A W R E N C E mine must tell. For mine, like W alter’s, like so many others that I knew, will soon be but an echo of the past, my name only a fading inscription on these memorial w alls; but as long as you recall my words, and maintain the spirit of your founders and best traditions of your chapter, so long shall I and my comrades linger among you, and still try to help you— and perhaps even attend your banquets, no longer as visible shapes, but as those unsubstantial, harmless ghosts that we call memories.

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OUR N AVAL ACADEM Y CHAPTER K

arl

is c h e r ,

Indiana

’25

“They shine among the stars that grace The galaxy of Fame. T hey add new luster to the place And honor Beta’s name.”

Old Omega Chapter! No one knows when or by whom it was estab lished, if it ever was regularly established; when or where its meetings were held, if it ever held any meetings; when or by whom its activities were ended, if it ever had any activities or they ever were formally termi nated. The first Omega was individualistic. Omitting transfers from other chapters it had only six members. But its members made history. Down at Annapolis there are tablets proclaiming their achievements and records of service telling of their glorious deeds. One marble memorial reads:

I j

“ In memory o f H u g h W . M c K e e , Lieutenant U .S.N ., born April 23, 1844, died June 1 1 , 18 71, from wounds received the same day on the parapet of the citadel, Kaughoa Island, Corea; while leading heroically the assault o f the Naval Battalion of the U. S. Asiatic Fleet. Erected by his brother officers of the Squadron.”

Another tablet recalls the great adven ture of a second member of this gallant company:

“ In memory o f Lieutenant J o h n C. T a l b o t , U .S.N . Peter Francis, Quarterm aster; John Andrews; Coxsw ain; James Muir, Captain of Hold, all of the U .S.S. Saginaw. “W ho were drowned Dec. 19, 1870, while attempting to land on the island o f Kauai in the North Pacific Ocean, after a boat voyage of fifteen hundred miles, voluntarily undertaken in search of aid for their wrecked shipmates on Ocean Island. “T o commemorate their adventurous Voyage, in admiration of their heroism, and to keep alive the remembrance of their noble and generous devotion, this tablet is erected by their ship mates and by officers of the U. S. Navy. “ ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man may lay down his life for his friends.’ ”

The Naval Academy chapter was estab lished in stirring times, under extraordin ary circumstances, and while the Academy was in temporary quarters. When Fort Sumter was fired on, the superintendent of the Academy, Captain George S. Blake, U.S.N., suspended academic routine and set about conditioning the grounds for defense. He expected an attack by the Maryland secessionists on account of the assumed advantage of the position as a base of military operations against Washington, and with the further object of capturing the supply of arms and ammunition on hand. On April 24, 1861, Superintendent Blake, finding it impossible

to cont

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had been sent to hold off an attack, directed the acting midshipmen to the C onstitution which meanwhile had been covering the entrance of the trans ports to the harbor. The time for departure had come. The boys from the North and the boys from the South were finally to separate, and the grief of parting was keen. Then the class of 1861 met and smoked a pipe of peace [against regulations], and solemnly pledged themselves to care for one another how ever much they might be enemies. Sixty cadets “ went South” and with their friends many of them assisted in the establishment of the Confederate States Naval Academy which had as its school ship the Patrick Henry of the James River Squadron. The Southern Academy was patterned after the Federal institution and went into operation July 23, 1863. William Guy Strange, Virginia ’55, a former professor of chemistry at Richmond College, was pro fessor of natural science at the Con federate Academy during its existence. The cadets on board the Constitution were taken to New York and then to Newport, where the Secretary of W ar had decided to use Fort Adams as a temporary home for the midshipmen. The records and apparatus followed the cadets on board the transport Baltic. Newport possesses a good harbor and is among the most fashionable wateringplaces of the country. The site is said to have been visited during the sixteenth century and the first settlement was made two hundred years before Beta Theta Pi was to be founded at Miami University. ~ \ ____ ! _____ j .1 _____n ________ ____________________ During the Revolutionary War the harbor was occupied by the French fleet, which came out in 1781 to aid in the cause of American Independence. An Indiana t

been appointed to the Academy from Indiana. French was of the class of ’63, but he was ordered into active service May 10, 1861, when the entire bat talion, with the exception of the fourth class, was sent to fighting vessels. Antoine de Reilhe McNair, an Academy graduate of i860 who was in active service, was to become a Beta at Harvard in 1881, and Augustus Ledyard Smith, Wesleyan ’54, a Mystic, was instructor in English at the Academy during this period, 1861-62. There was a Centre Beta in the Academy, Hugh W . M cKee, appointed from Kentucky in 1861, to be followed in the next year by another from the same chapter and state, John G. Talbot. On February 1, 1862, Robert Steele Ryors joined Pi chapter at Indiana University. That same term he left college for the United States Naval Academy. He had been appointed a cadet from New Mexico, and was admitted as a midshipman on April 11, 1862. When Ryors left Indiana for Newport he had a definite plan. He had told his Beta brothers at

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Bloomington that he was going to start a chapter at the Academy, and in a letter from the corresponding secretary of Pi chapter to the Hanover chapter in June of 1862 the writer takes it for granted that the circle had been started and adds: “ Omega, Newport, R.I., R. Steele Ryors, U.S.S. Santee” to the list of corresponding secretaries of all the chapters. Ryors evidently had made some official move toward obtaining permission to start a chapter at the Academy, since the Presiding Chapter of 1863, Ohio Wesleyan, wrote to the Hanover chapter on January 16: “ Since last hearing from you, we received a letter from Mr. Ryors of Rhode Island asking for the privilege of establishing a chapter at the U. S. Naval Academy in Newport. It promises to be a number one chapter and to be composed of number one material. Mr. Ryors is a talented man and comes highly recommended by Pi. W e wish you to take action promptly upon the matter and let us know your action. A s far as we have heard from the different chapters, all except Beta [Western Reserve] have given their hearty consent.”

Santee

Macedonian

Constitution

T H E S C H O O L S H IP S A T N E W P O R T , R.I.

Ryors completed the academic year 1862-63 at the Academy and was readmitted July 20, 1864, and finished part of the 1864-65 term before he returned to Indiana University to graduate with the class of 1865. His record at the Academy was not good and his actual connection with the establishment of Omega chapter is by no means certain, despite the pre liminary steps mentioned. He was a son of Alfred Ryors, a Jefferson graduate of 1835, w ^° served as president of Ohio University, of In diana University, and of Centre College at different times. Another son, Alfred Ryors, Centre ’63, was the Centre delegate to the Beta Theta Pi convention in 1865. His name appears in the catalogue four numbers above that of Hugh Wilson McKee, Centre ’63. This member of the famous M cKee family of the Centre chapter and John Gunnell Talbot, Centre ’63, as already noted, had obtained appointments and were cadets at the Acad

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emy. Through the acquaintance of these two Centre boys with “ A l” Ryors, as he was known, both of them must have met Robert Steele Ryors — and the idea of a chapter may have been born in that clasp of hands— for whenever Betas met on a strange campus in the ’sixties or ’seventies, they considered it an opportunity to found a new chapter of the fraternity. The official date of the founding of the chapter has come down to us as M ay 2, 1863. In one sense there was no “ founding” since the members must have greeted each other with a passing clasp of the hand. Regula tions prohibited organizations and secrets. Ryors had begun his investiga tion into the battalion for possible members before the date of the establish ment of the chapter. On March 21, 1863, from his quarters on the frigate, Santee, an additional school* ship which had been sent to Newport in the

T H E A T L A N T IC H O U SE Quarters of the Naval Academy while at Newport, R.I.

spring of 1862, he wrote to the Hanover chapter telling of the success and prospects of Omega: U. »S. Steamship Santee. Newport, R.I. March 21st, 1863 “ I am happy to say in behalf of the chapter here that she returns her hearty thanks for the cordial greeting ‘Iota’ has given. The chapter here is but young yet and the words o f encouragement you have spoken have come to us like the rainbow of promise. The chapter here is composed o f five members, four of which are the choice ones from a class of 200. A t present we will not take in any more, but in a short time we expect to have a flourishing fraternity here. There is only one draw back to our happiness. W e are a nameless set here. I was form erly a member of Pi chapter but now I belong to a chapter which as yet is without a letter. Is there no w ay by which we can be christened without waiting for a convention? I suppose you know that the Midshipmen here are gathered from every corner of the Union

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but still I do not believe that there is a single Midshipman here but has heard o f our glorious association and is proud and anxious to become a. member. In this Academy, W esterners stand high upon the lists and especially is Indiana proud o f her sons here. I do not refer to myself, as I come from far off New Mexico. Although the chapter here is young, still it is strong in Beta principles, and full of that indescribable feeling which only ‘Greeks’ can feel. I do not think that Beta Theta Pi will ever regret that a chapter was founded at the U .S .N .A .”

It seems impossible that meetings could have been held at all at New port under the stress of studies, discipline, and drills. There are no min utes or records extant to tell the story of the chapter which was given the named Omega. Its life must have been centered around personal friend ships; its meetings a “ good turn” for a member, a smile here— a pleasant

U .S.S. “ S A N T E E ”

chat between roommates. Some of these Betas did room together since Franklin Hanford, ’63, the last surviving member of Old Omega, wrote shortly before his death of the great secrecy that bound the members. He said he recalled going to M cKee and Talbot’s room and talking it over. The new members must have been initiated as individuals by one of the “chapter” members or through the process of reading and subscribing to the Constitution of the fraternity. This was the general method in all chapters until a formal ritual was adopted— and some such plan was nec essary at Newport. The other names on Omega’s roll w ere: Williamson Dunn, appointed from Indiana, who was of the class of ’64 which was advanced and assigned to active service in 1863; David Clarence Woodrow, from Ohio, a mem ber of the class of ’65, advanced and graduated in 1864; John Jacob Hunker, also of Ohio, and a member of the same class; Marcus Bain-

BETA LORE bridge Buford, from Kentucky, of ’65, and another member of that class, Godfrey Malborne Hunter, of the District of Columbia. There is no rec ord to show when these Betas were initiated. According to Ryors’ letters there were five members by March 21, 1863, previous to the founding as we know the date. This would include McKee, Talbot, Dunn, Woodrow, and himself. The rest read the Constitution before 1864. During 1861-62 the ordering into service of the midshipmen who had come to the Academy left the class organization in much confusion. In July, 1862, following the summer cruises on the sloops-of-war John Adams and Marion, the Navy was reorganized. The old grade of passed midshipman was abolished and a new rank of ensign created. From this time until the graduation of the class of ’64, the midshipmen in active service did not number a dozen all told, including those who, during their summer leave period obtained permission to join the vessels on the blockade. But even with most of the members of Old Omega in Newport, there were countless other barriers to keep the circle from working as a chapter. Parts of the battalion were quartered on ships, others in barracks; it was impossible to hold any formal meeting for a private purpose— there would have to be an explanation, and such an explana tion would mean the expulsion of the members. The summer cruise of 1863 was again in the face of the enemy as it had been the summer before. The midshipmen were distributed on the sailing sloops-ofwar M'arion and Macedonian and the famous schooner-yacht America which M A R C U S B. B U F O R D had been captured from the Confederates Picture supplied by a kinsman, Richar and presented to the Academy. The Godson, Midway, Kentucky. Macedonian went to Europe and the Marion arrived in New Y ork early in June, only to be ordered to sea in search for the Confederate privateer Tacony. The Macedonian, disguised as a Spanish vessel, went to look for the Confederate raiders, the Florida and the Alabama. But the enemy did not appear and the cadets returned to New port. During the academic years 1864-66 there was another Beta on the fac ulty, Henry Bascom Hibben, De Pauw ’51, who served as professor of mathematics. He had been chaplain of the Eleventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry during the first three years of the war, and later was chaplain of the academy from 1864 until 1890. While there seem to have been no meetings at Newport, some of the members were proud enough of their fraternity to write to other chapters and tell them of their troubles and to let outside Betas know that Omega

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was alive. The Western Reserve chapter thought that Omega was inactive and in a letter to the Hanover chapter refused to give its consent to the proposal for the chapter at Williams College, saying: “ . . . . our attempt at Newport, Rhode Island, in the Naval Academy was a great failure, as you know, and there was no opposition secret society at all................”

True, no opposition secret society, but as for opposition to a secret society that was a different thing! During the summer of 1864 the practice ships of the Naval Academy for the first time sailed as a squadron. They were the sailing sloops Macedonian and Marion, the gunboat Marblehead, and the yacht America. Ryors, McKee, Hunker, Hanford, Buford, and Hunter must have been on this cruise. Hardly had they begun their work of stripping the Marion as

F R A N K L IN H A N F O R D

JO H N J. H U N K E R

a practice evolution when a revenue cutter brought news that the feared Florida had burned a vessel off Cape Henry. The excitement of the youngsters, called instantly to get up anchor in the early dawn and proceed to meet an enemy stated to be in the immediate vicinity, was great. The Macedonian sighted a long, low, lead-colored steamer on the hori zon. She hoisted the English ensign and went to quarters, but the other showed a signal number showing her to be a captured blockade runner. Tradition says that the Macedonian had the Florida under her guns one calm night off Block Island, and could have made a captive if a signal light had not been too hastily burned. If she had, perhaps some of the Omega Betas would have seen Thomas Jefferson Paige, Jr., Virginia ’62, who was a lieutenant on board the well known raider.

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Someone was receiving mail and writing letters at Newport in 1864, for the presiding chapter in a letter to the Ohio chapter says: W rite _with great care to Omega and direct the Postmaster to return your letter to your address if not called fo r within ten days. Put no seal on the envelope nor the usual designation ‘Beta Theta P i’ as you are probably aware that if it should be discovered that there is a chapter at Newport, all the members would be expelled, which would be a more serious matter than the expulsion of students from our common colleges.”

F L A G C A P T U R E D A T F O R T M cK E E , C O R E A , 1871 Private Little, Private Purvase, Captain Tilton, U.S.M .C. Captain Tilton was the father of McLane Tilton, Jr., Virginia ’96, and grandfather of M cLane Tilton, III, Virginia ’25. H e was a devoted friend of Lieu tenant Hugh M cKee, and often told to his fam ily the thrilling story of the Corean campaign.

Omega considered itself a chapter in 1865, for the corresponding secretary sent in the list of members for the catalogue of 1865. The group at New port added another member when Benjamin Horr Buckingham, Western Reserve '69, arrived as a midshipman in 1865. Buckingham had heard that there was a “ chapter” at Newport but he had a hard time finding them! In May, 1864, the Congress put an end to the importunities of the ad vocates of new locations for the Academy by directing that it should return to Annapolis before October of the folio wing ^year. An attempt was made to have the name of the Naval Academy site changed to Severn Point (it had been Fort Severn in 1845), to match West Point but it failed. A d miral David D. Porter, who was to do much for the Academy, relieved

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Commodore Blake as superintendent in September, 1865, and during the summer of that year the cadets once more aboard the Constitution sailed for Annapolis. Buckingham wrote to his own chapter that he could not “ find” the Naval Academy chapter. The Western Reserve corresponding secretary wrote to Ohio University telling them about it and reported Buckingham as saying that “ she [Omega] must be in existence for we [Western Reserve] re ceived a letter from her corresponding secretary a few months since con taining favorable accounts of her prosperity.”

O U T S ID E F O R T M cK E E , C O R E A

His letter written to the Ohio chapter later in October tells the true story of old Omega in an impartial manner: “ I take it upon myself to answer your kind letter to Brother Talbot. I am but a newcomer here, but an old Greek, and so am initiated into all the secrets o f Omega. I find the state of affairs here truly lamentable. I am afraid with Omega as it is with the other chapters of the fraternity, the loss o f that needful quality to sustain anything— interest............... Y ou are aware no doubt that it is positively against the regulations o f the Academy that any such organization should exist and when anything here is contra legem it is extremely difficult to exist long. A system of police which ferrets out the most hidden things, soon finds out the existence of such a body as would form a good chapter o f Beta Theta Pi. There are now in the chapter eight members liable to be reported to the Department and even expelled. The body is without organ ization, without interest, and yet I who a year ago would think it impossible for any body of Greeks to be in such a condition do not, knowing the condition in which they are placed, think it strange. Hence, it is impossible to hold any secret meetings some o f us being on shipboard, and some in the buildings. Now, without those hearty old Beta meetings, how are we to flourish? . . . . ”

He ends his letter with a pitiful plea: . . . Therefore we have concluded to write to the chapters, tell them our

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circumstances and say that we can do no more. W rite letters and encourage us if you can We are willing perfectly so, to push on if we see the glimmer of land ahead. W rite soon and tell us your opinion. . . .

That letter was the parting word to the fraternity at large that Omega was dying. De Pauw failed to receive an answer from it early in 1866. Omega disappeared as a chapter but her ten valiant members carried on and distinguished themselves in their own lives. The convention of 1880 declared the chapter officially dead when it went over the list of chapters and withdrew the charters of all dormant groups. Franklin Hanford, ’66, who died on February 8, 1928, wrote of his memories of the days at Newport: “ • • • - I can only tell you that I joined because John Talbot and Hugh McKee asked me to. I admired both and would have done anything that they asked me to.

F O R T M O N O C A C Y , C O R E A , 1871 It was against the rules of the Academy to join a secret society. So far as I know, there were no regular meetings, and the Betas never did anything of interest. W e never mentioned that there was such a society until years after we graduated. “I had almost forgotten that I belonged to the society until about 1899 I was surprised one day to be invited to attend a meeting o f Betas in New Y o rk City. I accepted, .and attended the meeting and enjoyed it. “ I remember nothing about Robert Steele Ryors except that he was at the Academ y and belonged to the society. I do not even remember an initiation meeting fo r m yself and anyone else. “ I knew Benjamin H orr Buckingham, a fine fellow, I liked him, but I do not remember about his being a Beta. “ Occasionally I had correspondence with Buford after I left the Naval Academy, and I talked with him about the Betas when I sailed with him on the Pensacola, but he knew less than I did. . . “I now keep up some acquaintances with them through the magazine which I take. I have attended two Beta conventions, both at Niagara Falls, the first one on the American side, the second on the Canadian side, and I enjoyed them both............

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So old Omega passed on, the smallest chapter of the fraternity, but the ten members followed on— two of them to become rear admirals in the Navy, and two of them to die in the service. The members were: Hugh Wilson McKee, ’63, became an ensign in 1868; master, 1869; lieutenant, 1870. He was killed in line of duty July 11, 1871, in an assault on the Corean forts at the mouth of the Seoul River. He had many relatives in the Centre chapter including: John Lapsley McKee, Centre ’49; Samuel McKee, Centre ’53; James Finley McKee, Centre ’49, and Hugh W are McKee, Centre ’63. John Gunnell Talbot, ’63, entered the Navy as an ensign in 1868. His name remains among the honored in the N avy’s history. On December

B E T A S A T A N N A P O L IS , 1924

19, 1870, as a lieutenant on the U .S.S. Saginaw, he was drowned at Kalahikai, Island of Kauai, in the Hawaiian group, while attempting to obtain assistance for his vessel after having made sixteen hundred miles in an open boat with four men in thirty-one days. Robert Steele Ryors, ’65, became a judge in Missouri following his graduation from Indiana. He was a member of the Indiana Senate from 1884 to 1892 as well as a circuit judge for the Thirty-second District in Missouri from 1905 until his death in 1914. He died at Linn, Missouri. Williamson Dunn, ’64, served as an ensign in the Navy during the Spanish-American W ar and was honorably discharged in 1899. He died in 1922, in Los Angeles, California. David Clarence Woodrow, ’64, was an ensign in 1866, master the same year, then lieutenant in 1868, and lieutenant commander in 1869. He was retired as a lieutenant commander in 1884, and died in 1901 in Cincinnati.

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John Jacob Hunker, ’66, followed the Navy after his graduation and was retired as a rear admiral in 1906 after forty-five years of service. He died in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1916. Franklin Hanford, 66, was retired in the rank of rear admiral in 1903 after forty years of service, to become a farmer on the land which had been in the family for many years. The Admiral was a descendant of William Bradford of Puritan times, and was born in Chili, Monroe County, New York, November 8, 1844, the son of William Haynes and Abbey Pixley Hanford. He was appointed to the Naval Academy from this state and was a mid shipman on the old Constitution, then a training ship during the Civil War. He became an ensign in 1868 and rose through the ranks until he became a rear admiral in 1903* shortly before his retirement. He had seen serv ice in many stations and ships and had circumnavigated the globe as navi gator of the U .S.S. Pensacola fr<3m 1881 to 1884, taking observations for determination of the compass variations. During the revolutions in Ecua dor and Nicaragua, 1895 to 1897, he protected American interests while in command of the U .S.S. Alert. He commanded the naval station at Cavite, P.I., after the Spanish-American W ar and was charged with the salvaging of Spanish ships sunk by Admiral Dewey. He was an ardent book collector, having especially fine collections of naval and local New York his tory. In 1912 he suffered a stroke of paralysis, which left him practically an invalid, though his mental faculties were as keen as ever. He married November 6, 1878, Sara A. Crosby, who died November 10, 1915. They had three children, M ary Crosby, deceased, John Munn, an associate visit ing surgeon at Presbyterian Hospital, New York City, and Ruth Crosby, who has been his housekeeper since the death of his wife. A s noted above he died February 8, 1928. Marcus Bainbridge Buford rose to the rank of lieutenant commander in 1881 only to resign from the service. During the Spanish-American War, he re-entered with the same rank and, interestingly enough, he was in com mand of the U. S. Arm y transport Thomas, when it carried to the Philip pines, after the war, a large company of American teachers, among whom were a number of Betas who organized a “ chapter” en route. In 1899 he was honorably discharged with the rank of captain. He died in 1914 in Paris, France, where he had made his home for many years. Godfrey Malbourne Hunter, ’65, entered the Navy and passed through the grades to lieutenant. He died in 1873 in Barcelona, Spain, while attached to the U .S.S. Wubash. Benjamin H orr Buckingham, Western Reserve ’67, became a lieutenant commander in 1896 and was retired in that grade in 1898. Subsequently he was the naval attache at the United States legations at Paris, Berlin, St. Petersburg, and London. He was the author of Observation on Siberia and wore the cross o f a Knight of the Legion of Honor. He died in 1906 at Washington, D.C. So they passed on, the Silver Grays of Old Omega. They never sang: “ Sun in the eastern sky, leaving the foam, Light with thy first bright ray, Omega’s home.” or any other version of Charles Stetson Wheeler’s beautiful song we know so well. They were, no doubt, interested in the sun as it came up each

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morning, but from a business-like angle, for they were cadets at the United States Naval Academy during the Civil W ar and soon to become officers in the Navy. N o t e : Credit is due Parke Benjamin, History o f the United States Naval Acadeviy; Scharp, History o f the Confederate Ship “ Patrick Henry,” and Beta Letters for some of the material. The pictures were obtained through Lieutenant-Commander Lewis Thornburgh, U.S.N ., Lehigh ’14; Captain C. C. Conrad (S .C .), U.S.N ., of Annapolis, and Captain George M. Chandler, U. S. A.,' Michigan ’98.

A REMINISCENCE OF THE EARLY FIFTIES Miami ’53 [An address at a meeting of the Betas at Chillicothe, Ohio, Christmas, 1910.] D

obert

h r is t y

G a l b r a it h ,

In the olden time, when I was at college, there was but one course of study, that which led to the degree of bachelor of arts— such a course as now is called classical. You took that course without question. In three years after you had graduated, especially if you were a preacher, lawyer, doctor, or teacher, you received the degree of master of arts. When you were in college the faculty were not troubled as to whether you liked any particular study or not— if it was in the course it had to be taken. There was but one exception which was that, in the Junior class, such students as intended to become preachers, might choose Hebrew in place of calculus. O f course all future theologians took H ebrew ; and from the complaints and murmurs of some of the others who were not fond of mathematics, I suppose they were sorry that they did not feel that preaching was to be their future work. College life then was, in some respects, very different from what it is now. There were no football, no baseball, no college glee clubs, no college yell. Indeed scientific baseball, football, had not been invented, at least we had never heard of them. W e did play what we called football but the play was governed by no rules— sides were taken, including all the boys present. One side was to kick the ball to one base, the other to the other base; there was no piling of the players on each other, no tripping, no running with the ball, no rough play of any kind; nothing was kicked except the ball, and yet we had plenty of exercise, lots of fun and did most heartily enjoy ourselves. I look back on the time spent in college not only as most profitable, but also most enjoyable. Our class of ’53, at Old Miami, had thirty-five members, only four of whom are now living. There were seven Betas, of whom, alas, I only remain. Sixteen became Presbyterian preachers and a Catholic priest, and here again, I alone am left. Two men who afterwards became famous, though neither belonged to our fraternity, Benjamin Harrison and David Swing, the great Chicago preacher, missed the honor of belonging to our class by graduating in 1852, and Whitelaw Reid waited too long, not graduat ing until 1856. W e had never then heard of Wooglin and some people still doubt whether, in reality, there ever was such a person as our patron saint, but I am convinced that, as a matter of fact, he watched over the interests of our fraternity then with as much of diligent care as he does now.

BETA LORE A t that time the fraternity was not nearly so large as now. In 185'5 a-catalogue was published, a pamphlet of sixty-three pages, while our last catalogue is a handsome volume containing 1,278 pages. There was then but little organization, further than the division into chapters, one of which was made the presiding chapter. While I was at college Alpha chapter presided and kept up a correspondence with the other chapters and the formation of any new chapters must be reported to i t ; whether the action taken in constituting a new chapter required to be confirmed by the presiding chapter, or merely reported, I do not recollect, but I know that but little formality was necessary. The chapter at Ohio Wesleyan was founded early in 1853. In the winter or early spring, of that year, a young gentleman, a student at Dela ware, made a visit to his uncle, a prominent citizen of Oxford. We, in some way, found out of his presence. His uncle had a daughter, a most estimable young lady, and we also discovered that one of our members, now General Gates P. Thruston, of Nashville, Tennessee, had been intro duced to her and so we commissioned him to call on the young lady, get acquainted with the young man, bring him round to see some of the rest of us, and show him whatsoever of courtesy the case demanded. The plan worked nicely; we were all pleased with Mr. James Harvey Hills, elected him to membership in Alpha chapter, gave him copy of the con stitution, and endowed him with full authority to found a chapter in Ohio Wesleyan. That our confidence in him was not misplaced, our catalogue shows that in the list of that large and flourishing chapter, founded April 17, 1853, his name comes first. W e had no house, such as many of our chapters now have. W e had not even any regular place of meeting but held our sessions in the rooms of the members, and as these rooms were not very large and had no great amount of extra furniture, after the few chairs were occupied, we found comfortable seats on beds, trunks and wood boxes, and there was never any complaint about lack of seats. W e did all we could to keep outsiders from knowing when we were in session and regular meetings were not held on the same day of the week in succession, so that if a meeting was held Tuesday night, the next one was held Wednesday night. The college had two three-story brick buildings used for dormitories and eight rooms in the old wing and in these the boys slept and studied, but there was one room, in the third-story of the main building, in which, with two classmates', I roomed during the latter part of my course, and since we were the only students rooming in that building it came to be the custom to hold meetings of the fraternity in our room which, as being more retired and also larger than any other room, was in all respects most satisfactory. A t one time we had a banquet, the first that I ever attended— we made careful preparation for it and when it came it was a wonder. Two of our number had the room in the old wing in which Knox and Marshall wrote the constitution and founded the fraternity. The old wing has been torn down, but the place which the room occupied is now marked with a handsome tablet in the wall of the Chapel, which has been built on the site of the Old Wing. The room had double honor; first, because in it the fraternity had its origin; second, because in it was celebrated the

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first and in some respects the most remarkable Beta banquet. The room, too, had a stove, which had an oven, in which a turkey could be roasted, and this probably, more than anything else, made it an ideal place for a banquet. One of the men occupying the room afterward became, during the war, quartermaster and bought supplies for thousands and thousands of men in the armies of the West, and did the work excellently w ell; no fault was ever found with him, he received nothing but commendation from the Government. I suppose he was unconsciously trained for this later work in the buying of supplies for our banquet. In this he did well and when the banquet came off there was nothing lacking. I have seen no other like it and do not dare to hope to see its like. W e could have got chickens at one dollar a dozen; but we wanted a turkey which would cost us fifty cents, or, if it was a very fine one, seventy-five cents. W e got a turkey, a fine one. I don’t remember how, or where, we got it, but I do know that a turkey in the daytime is hard to catch, and then it would hardly be the thing to go out where there was a flock of turkeys, pick out the finest bird and run him down; the owner would certainly enter a vigorous pro test. Then the turkeys about Oxford, as I understand, roosted high; I know there were many very high trees in the neighborhood and boys would hardly dare to climb these trees in a dark night; now would it do to attempt to get a turkey from its lofty perch in a night of bright moonlight? Then I do not remember seeing any feathers lying around and so, I think, we must have bought that turkey ready dressed. My interest in him, at any rate, began after he was cooked, with all the most tender and savory, with the skin all brown and crisp, with stuffing made toothsome, with pepper and salt; and fragrant as a garden of spices, with exactly the proper inter mixture of sage; and then the g ra v y ! But words fail me, I cannot tell how good it w a s! Then the dessert at each plate— a splendid bunch of raisins and cakes were there, the old-fashioned ginger cakes, costing a cent a piece, made with genuine New Orleans molasses, as yellow as gold in the inside, a glistening brown on the outside, having been glazed with some kind of mixture, so that they shone as if varnished. Then we had some kind of cakes, each one of which had a hole in the middle and we ate them hole and all and were unable to decide which kind of cake was the better, both being so good. W e could not have such banquets often, our necessary expenses being great. W e had to pay six dollars a year for a room and then furnish it ourselves; true the furniture that wTe had was not very expensive— a plain table, a stove, four or five plain wooden chairs and a bed; a few went so far as to have carpet but that was not at all necessary; then we had to pay one dollar and fifty cents a week for board. A few, however, boarded themselves, “ bached” as we called it and that could be done as the cata logue informed us for from fifty cents a week. But heavy o . to seventy-five ^ as our expenses were, we decided to have a banquet, regardless of cost, and we had it. It cost us twenty-five-cents a plate, but surely it was money w^ell spent— not one of us wanted it back. There is a strange likeness among Betas wherever you find them— they make no great show' but they stand ready for every duty and do well whatever they are called upon to do. They have filled every office, to which thev have been called, with honor to themselves and to the fraternity.

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They have been, the judges in all our state courts, from the lowest to the highest, and in the Supreme Court of the United States, members of both houses of Congress, and ambassadors to foreign nations. W e have had one vice-president. Members of our fraternity have filled every office of state except that of president. They did not either officiously push themselves into place. They were not office seekers, but when men, such as they, were wanted, they were called upon to fill the places and were ready and did the work well. It would seem as though all had adopted the motto which is engraved on the seal of the old Miami where the fraternity had its birth, Prodesse Quam Conspici.

A CHAPTER SEEN FROM THE OUTSIDE “ To see ourselves as others see us.” It always is interesting to get another’s view-point. But it is seldom that an outsider gives so good a picture of chapter life in Beta Theta Pi as is that furnished by John R. Scott of the Ohio University, class of 1864, a Delta Tau Delta. In the Rainbow of Delta Tau Delta for March, 1923, he describes the formation of his own chapter at Athens, Ohio. He pays considerable attention to Beta Theta Pi and gives some interesting recollections which are well worth study, as throwing light upon fraternity life in Athens sixty years ago. “ In 1861, a chapter of Beta Theta Pi— Kappa chapter it was, I think— had flourished for some years at Ohio University. They were an airy, uppish set, disposed to be exclusive and flock by themselves. The townspeople, of course, were taught to think the Betas were the very flower of the school. The trustees and faculty conceded to the chapter an evening of commence ment week all to themselves. On this occasion, its members, active and graduate, gorgeous with long ribbon scarfs of crimson and headed by a brass band, marched in stately procession to Atheneum Hall where some more or less distinguished Beta, alumnus or stranger, delivered a more or less eloquent address to the small but conspicuous body of Betas and a crowded audience of townspeople and visitors. The public was invited to hear the address, because it is not possible to make a great splurge unless there are plenty of spectators. A fter the address, the chapter held a ban quet, to which, of course, only ,the fit and few were invited. So this annual function served the chapter well; there were both a glorious publicity and a pretty hint of reserve, exclusiveness, mystery. It was a well-devised piece of advertising. This chapter, as I knew it, included not only some of the best students in the school, brilliant men, scholarly, and of fine social stand ing, but also some middling and dull students of good social standing. Social standing seemed to be the constant factor. The Betas freely ad mitted their monopoly of brains, breeding, and scholarship, and this annual public display was the chief means by which they ‘got away with it.’ They had from ten to fifteen active members. No other national Greek frater nity had as yet established a chapter at Ohio. Naturally, the rest of us barbarians, to the number of more than a hundred, thought that the Betas were casting a gratuitous slur on us by their cool assumption of superiority; therefore, ‘we tossed not high our ready caps in air at sight of these great’ bluffers. Also, having everything their own way, they initiated no student

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until he reached the junior year, when picking out the best should have been easy; yet, by what seemed stupidity or perversity, they contrived to acquire some quite mediocre men. “ Silas Pruden, a junior, belonged to a leading family of Athens. A cousin of his, Earl Cranston, was a Beta, and one of their best and brightest. In later life he became a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Be tween Sile and me the matter was never discussed, or even mentioned; but I could not help suspecting that he was deeply chagrined and resentful because the Betas failed to choose him, and perhaps some of this resent ment extended to his cousin. Sile and I were congenial spirits and great cronies, and he was a prime favorite with everybody. He it was who first broached to me the idea of a fraternity chapter to rival the Beta Theta Pi. ‘Barkis was willin’/ especially because I had made up my mind never to become a Beta. It did not require much time nor effort to gather and pledge a little knot of choice and congenial spirits.” The new chapter was formally installed on June 21, 1862. The way its presence was made known and the effect on the Betas, Mr. Scott tells in the following interesting paragraph. “ The next Sunday, the baccalaureate sermon was preached before an overflowing congregation in the Methodist Church. Our chapter, each man with his badge frankly inviting inspection, went to the church in a body, not marching, but walking sedately. < When once inside the church doors, we distributed ourselves as promiscuously and widely as possible so that our Beta friends might not fail to mark our new decoration and receive due notice of the new departure. The badge was then an inch square, and would carry quite a distance. W e were cer tainly ‘the observed of all observers,’ and felt many a thrill of happy triumph when we fancied the panic and dismay of the gentlemen of the opposition. That was a happy day, the propitious opening of a career which has con tinued, for the most part, happily, honorably, and prosperously to this day. The charter membership included four seniors, one junior, and eight sopho mores and freshmen, mostly sophomores. The revelation of our existence as a chapter of a new fraternity was a complete surprise, in accordance with our intention. That the Betas were really scared and took it greatly to heart was betrayed by their radical change of policy; in the next fall term, far from restricting their fastidious choice to the junior class, they took in not only sophomores, and even freshmen, but also several boys of the preparatory department sported Beta ‘bugs.’ (The Beta badge does look very like a bug.)”

FIFTY YEARS A T JOHNS HOPKINS C

h arles

aters

Officially, January 1, 1878, marked the founding of Alpha Chi chapter at the Johns Hopkins U niversity; for that is the date on the charter. But to all who are connected with the chapter, November of the preceding year was the time of our establishment. It is a matter of pride with us that a chapter of Beta Theta Pi was brought to Hopkins when the University was less than two years old. On February 22, 1876, Daniel Coit Gilman, first president of the University, was

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inaugurated; in October of the same year instruction of students was be gun. Again, on February 22, 1880, we find in the chapter minutes and archives: “ The fourth anniversary of Johns Hopkins University was held tonight in Hopkins Hall. The exercises comprised a poem by Mr. Sidney Lanier, written for commemoration day, and an address by William M. Evarts, Secretary of State of the United States. The only graduates on the occasion taking the ‘bachelor’ degree were Edgar Goodman, Carl Eckhardt Grammer, and Edmund Allen Jarvis, all members of Alpha Chi chapter.” The man really responsible for the founding of our chapter was Robert C. Cole, of the Dickinson chapter. A t his suggestion, a group of students at Johns Hopkins University was made acquainted with Beta Theta Pi and decided to petition the fraternity for a charter. During the summer of 1877 a meeting was held at Professor Clarke’s room at the Baltimore City College building. Present at this meeting were, besides the Hopkins men, Mr. Cole and several other members of the Dickinson chapter, as well as various members of the Baltimore Alumni chapter. Shortly after this meeting the petition was signed and sent to the various chapters for action. The vote was favorable. In accordance with this vote, Mr. Cole was chosen by the Dickinson chapter, and Mr. Thomas Ireland Elliott was chosen by the alumni to organize the chapter and initiate the charter members. In November, 1877 (the date is indicated in the original book by a ques tion), November ( ?), 1877, a meeting was held at Guy’s Hotel in Baltimore, and Edmund Allen Jarvis, W iltz Raymond Strickler, and Thomas Milton Beadenkopf were initiated. The charter, which was dated January 1, 1878, contained these names, and also those of Carl Eckhardt Grammer and Lewis Webb Wilhelm. The Alpha Chi chapter had, then, at the start of its official existence, five members. Since November, 1927, marked the fiftieth anniversary of the actual start of our chapter, it was felt that some proper ceremonies were necessary. It was decided to have the first initiation of the year, always the biggest one, at this time. The six initiated were Lester Allen Ahroon, George William Armstrong, Jr., Lawrence Alexander McNeer, George Sadtler Robertson, Jr., Albert Riffel Gibson, and Eugene Bussey. December 15, 1927, was the date actually chosen for the ceremony. What a contrast this was to the initiation of fifty years before. Then but a few alumni, all of other chap ters, were present. In 1927 there was a large number of “ Silver Grays,” many of whom had been members of Alpha Chi themselves. According to the tradition of the chapter, the ritual was rendered from memory. The banquet which followed was a notable occasion, the president of the fra ternity, Francis W. Shepardson, making the principal address. And so was celebrated the end o f the first half-century at Johns Hopkins.

OUR BOND FRATERNAL

“THE LINKS OF OUR BOND FRATERNAL” In the list of members of the Johns Hopkins chapter are the names of Albert Shaw and Roger Shaw. The links of their Beta history run back more than sixty years. Back of the Beta history is American history run ning further into the past in a most interesting way. Soon after the Revolutionary W ar the westward movement of the pio neer population was in full force, that great tide of humanity so strikingly pictured in the Choir Invisible, The Crossing, The Way to the West, and stirring the imagination in The Winning of the West. Allen and Churchill, Hough, and Roosevelt and other writers recog nized its significance. Neither mountain barrier nor fear of the Indian deterred these daring souls as they pushed west ward along the wilderness roads. Among them, ancestors of many Beta families, were the Shaws and the Halsteads. When the great revival of 1800 swept over Kentucky, Hezekiah Shaw was con verted and joined the Methodist Church. An adventurous lad and eloquent, he was in demand as a preacher and a patriotic speaker. Sent to the Southwest, he was in Louisiana when the Jefferson purchase was made in 1803. Then only twenty years old, he had been preaching for three years. Later, while preaching near Nashville, Tennessee, he came under the influence of two famous Methodist bish ops who made history in that section, Bishop Griffin and Bishop McKendree. G R IF F IN M. S H A W So, when a son came to the union of Hezekiah Shaw and Rebecca Halstead, Taken at Wabash College, about 1864 it was not strange that he was given the name Griffin McKendree Shaw. Colonel Griffin Halstead was a brother of Rebecca H alstead; so the name Griffin had double significance in the family. The Colonel’s son was Murat Halstead, long a power in the editorial and political circles of Ohio— for the westward movement of the Shaws and Halsteads did not halt until, 130 years ago, homes were established in Butler County, Ohio, not far from the Miami University campus. But there was another westward movement of Americans, the one from New England. That brought Susan Fisher and her sister out to Indiana as teachers under an educational programme fostered by Mary Lyon and others. The sister married Reverend George H. White, a Presbyterian minister who had graduated from Wabash College. They went as mission aries to Turkey where their son has been president of Anatolia College for many years. He graduated from Grinnell College. All these things are ‘‘links in our bond fraternal” ; for, when Susan Fisher married Dr. Griffin

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McKendree Shaw, a young physician practicing in Indiana, and, with the lapse of years, the time came for decision where their son, Griffin McKen dree Shaw, Jr., should go to college, the missionary brother-in-law proved a successful alumnus booster for “ Old Wabash.” Another son, ten years younger, named Albert Shaw, went to Grinnell College. He wanted to go to Miami University, near his Butler County home, and join the mother chapter of Beta Theta Pi. But Miami closed its doors just then, and the New England kinsfolk who were numerous in the colony that founded Grin nell College proved the attraction drawing him to that Iowa college, where, unfortunately, there were no fraternities. That, however, is getting ahead of the story. On June 2, 1865, Griffin McKendree Shaw of Paddy’s Run, Ohio, was initiated into Tau chapter at Wabash College. The minutes of the meeting are signed by R. F. B. Pierce, president, later to become a member of Con gress, and by G. W . Harvey, secretary. One paragraph reads: “According to previous arrangement Mr. Shaw was introduced to Tau in a most friendly and affectionate manner, which he seemed to appreciate fully. The indispen sable dorg was present tonight in much force.”

The new member threw himself into the work of the fraternity with great vigor. In 1866 and, with second term, in 1867, he was secretary of the chapter. In 1868 he was its president, then being a senior. He received his bachelor of arts degree in June, 1868. Meetings of the chapter fre quently were held in his room. Two extracts are significant as throwing light on what was done in the meetings of that tim e: “ March 4, 1868. Chapter met in the rooms o f Brothers Shaw and Little. Meet ing was opened with a prayer by Mr. Shaw. “ March 26, 1868. A ll were in good spirits save Mr. Shaw. He was laboring under the false delusion that he had not done a very good thing in the speech he had just delivered at Centre Church. It was one of the many errors of his judgment.”

Anyone versed in Beta lore understands that paragraph. It tells of the Beta urge to the individual to do his best in every public appearance. It suggests censure and sharp criticism and the inevitable “ sacrifice” as a penalty. It also tells that, in the opinion of chapter mates, Wooglin had not been offended by Shaw that evening. Paddy’s Run, Ohio, despite its Irish name, was settled by Welsh families who were prosperous farmers, devoted to education, music, and good preach ing. The nearest neighbors and most intimate friends of Dr. Shaw’s family was the family of Hugh Williams, a Welshman. It was natural that a son of this family, Roger Williams, should go to Wabash under the influence of Griffin Shaw. The minutes of Tau chapter state: “ Novem ber 13, 1867. Brother Shaw reported that McCorkle and Williams had made up their minds to join. Brothers Shaw, Haines and Little were appointed a committee to prepare for their initiation. “ November 26, 1867. Tonight is the night for an addition to our number. It was evidently no ordinary occasion as was plain and made known by the darkened room, the shadowy and silent movement o f objects to and fro, and the deep red light issuing from three holes of a square pine box covered with a black cloth. The three holes in the box were cut in the shape of the most significant letters of the Greek alphabet, Beta, Theta, Pi, letters expressive of events, of pleasures, feasts, midnight serenades, letters the symbols of principles fo r which some would even dare to die. The candidates Roger W illiam s and Hale McCorkle, were then admitted and sworn into our secret order according to our accustomed rites.

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“ January 30, 1868. W e next had a splendid essay from Roger Williams, subject, ‘Plagiarism.’ Roger writes well. He shows signs of a great deal of undeveloped talent. Coming from the place he does he could not very well help being what he is. [This minute, with its boost for Paddy’s Run, is signed by Griffin M. Shaw, secretary pro tem.] “ January 11, 1871. A letter was read from Brother Roger W illiams of Alpha.

R O G E R W IL L IA M S , Miami ’72 Editor of the Catalogue o f 1870

Dr. Albert Shaw, Johns Hopkins ’84, editor of the American monthly Review of Reviews w rites: “ Roger W illiam s fo r a time had gone to Wabash College under my brother’s influence, and had been persuaded by my brother to join the Betas, but for reasons of convenience he had transferred to Miami, I think at the end of his freshman year. I was six or seven years younger than he, but was his devoted follow er and protege. R oger’s development of mind, character, and aptitudes, while in college, was very remarkable. He not only edited the Miami Student, but he owned the local printing office, and the weekly newspaper of the place which I believe was called the O xford Citizen. H e employed a trustworthy local newspaper man to run the weekly paper and the printing office, but he was constantly in and out of the place, looking after it in a general way. I visited him often enough at O xford to know very well what he was doing. H e was captain o f the baseball team, and was one of the most remark able college players of his generation. In those days the Red Sox of Cincinnati were the national champions. They tried to persuade Roger to play with them a season

BETA LORE or two after his graduation. He had early chosen journalism as his life profession, and was determined to give himself a broad training. A t that time American students who wished to do post-graduate work went to Germany, and Roger was advised to do that by the president of Miami and his other scholarly friends. In order to be the better fitted for work in Germany, he allowed himself during his senior year at Miami to read only the German dailies, which in those days flourished in Cincinnati. He went abroad in high spirits, and his work was notably promising and his future prospects exceptionally brilliant. Unfortunately, while on a long walk outside the city of Got tingen he was exposed to a severe storm which resulted in a throat trouble from which he never recovered. He was determined not to die abroad, and survived two or three weeks after he had reached his mother’s house. A t the funeral services, as I-. well re member, President Hepburn stated that no student in the history of Miami had made so high a record as Roger W illiams who had led his classes in all subjects while having had a remarkable record for successful leadership in various college activities.”

Roger Williams was an active and aggressive Beta. In our remarkable historical volume Beta Letters there are forty letters written to him between 1870 and 1872, a number of them being about the catalogue of the fraternity which he edited. Evidently he was insistent upon correct information and cash subscriptions and at the same time urged attendance upon the next Convention, and yet his letters, unfortunately not preserved, are stated by one correspondent to have been “ heavy with good cheer and brotherly love.” Regarding that catalogue Dr. Shaw w rites: “ Roger took the entire summer vacation as I remember it, to work upon the general catalogue o f your fraternity. I was then just turning thirteen. I wrote a very clear and legible hand, and was accurate enough to be of use in such work, so that I put in a considerable part of my summer in what was a pleasant rather than a tedious task of acting as sole clerical assistant in the compiling and copying of lists of names.”

Just a paragraph more. Griffin McKendree Shaw died in 1872, four years after graduation from Wabash. Roger Williams died in 1873. The president of Miami University referred to above was a Beta, Andrew Dousa Hepburn, Washington and Jefferson ’51, whose son and three grandsons are Betas. Albert Shaw and Roger Shaw are sons of Dr. Albert Shaw and nephews of Griffin M. Shaw. They followed him into Beta Theta Pi after a lapse of fifty-nine years. “And t h u s ................ The links of our bond fraternal run”

Chapter X — Sentiment and the Individual

THE WILLIAM RAIMOND BAIRD FAMILY William Raimond Baird was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 24, 1858, the son of William J. and Mary Emma (Cornish) Baird. He graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1878, receiving the de gree of mechanical engineer. He then took courses at Columbia in the Law School and the School of Political Science, receiving the degree of bachelor of laws in 1882. The next year he began, in New York City, the practice of

WM.

R A IM O N D B A IR D , Stevens, 1878 Photo taken at time of graduation, 20 years of age

WM.

R A IM O N D B A IR D , Stevens, 1878 A s he was best known

law, which he kept up until his death, making a specialty of patents and patent law. He married September 29, 1886,.Miss Jennie G. Mansfield, of Wilbraham, Massachusetts, the ceremony being performed in the Memorial Methodist Church. Among the gifts was an antique pitcher, presented by Baird’s chapter, made from ancient silver curiously wrought and bearing Beta symbols. Their only son, Raimond Duy Baird, deceased, was a member of the Wesleyan chapter of the fraternity and it was in his memory that the chapter house at Middletown, Connecticut, was constructed. For many years the family lived at 63 West Eighty-third Street, New York City, until its removal to 144 Ralston Avenue, South Orange, New Jersey.

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Mr. Baird’s early education was supplemented by wide reading and ex tended travel. He was possessed of a remarkable memory which enabled him to have detailed information on many subjects ready for instant use. He had an apparently natural bent toward investigation and so became some what of an authority in a number of different lines. In the college fraternity world he was undoubtedly the best known in dividual. ^ In 1879 he published a small volume entitled American College Fraternities, which was the first serious attempt to organize and classify information regarding the college secret society system. This publication under his editorial supervision passed through eight editions during thirtyeight years and, continued after his death by others, is everywhere recognized as the standard authority on the subject. Mr. Baird also contrib uted articles on fraternities to Johnson’s Encyclopedia and to the Encyclo pedia Britannica. He was an earnest worker in the cause of interfraternity relationships. He advocated strongly the formation of the Interfraternity Conference and for eight years was one of the three representatives of Beta Theta Pi in attendance. He was generous in his aid of the officers of fra ternities and sororities who sought from him information and counsel. He gathered together a remarkable fraternity library comprising practically complete sets of all the fraternity magazines and most of the other im portant fraternity material which has appeared in the history of these American organizations. This collection was willed by him to Beta Theta Pi which deposited it in the New York Public Library to be of as great service as possible to the fraternity world. He was a member of Phi Delta Phi and between 1882 and 1893 was secretary of its Council. He was also a member of Tau Beta Pi. A s one of the earnest workers in Beta Theta Pi he made his first ap pearance on the committee which represented Alpha Sigma Chi in the com bination with the fraternity in 1879. Almost immediately he began to make contributions to the fraternity magazine. It was not long until he was chosen a member of the editorial staff and in this field he continued to ren der yeoman service until, at the time of his death, he had been for nearly a quarter of a century the sole editor and dominating factor in the magazine. The mass of valuable material presented to the fraternity in the well ordered yearly volumes during that long period is astonishing. No one can estimate the worth to Beta Theta Pi of the faithful services of Mr. Baird as editor. But in addition to his work in this special field he found time to do a vast amount of literary work for the fraternity. In 1894 he published, under the title Fraternity Studies, a short history of the fraternity based on articles which had appeared from time to time in the magazine. In 1907 this ma terial, thoroughly revised, appeared as the Handbook of Beta Theta Pi. In 1914 he edited Betas o f Achievement, a volume of biographical sketches of the more prominent members of the fraternity, presenting in encyclopedic form a surprising record of achievement on the part of those who have worn the badge of Beta Theta Pi. In 1916 he published, at the earnest re quest of the fraternity, Forty Years of Fraternity Legislation. This was a volume of nearly four hundred pages, reproducing with valuable editorial notes the minutes of the conventions of Beta Theta Pi from 1842 to 1878. A s the fraternity recognized the importance and significance of this book, Mr. Baird was asked to edit also the convention minutes from 1879 t0 date,

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and at the time of his death he was busily engaged upon this task. He also accepted a commission from the fraternity to prepare the Beta Letter Book. This was to contain letters written before 1879, some of them by men who became nationally famous, and all of them replete with interesting and valuable information regarding the history of Beta Theta Pi. Quite a bit of the proof for this work, which w^.s to make two volumes, was well under way at the time of his de^th. The volumes were completed for publication in his name. Mr. Baird also gave a great deal of attention to catalogue work for the fraternity. He was a member of the publication committee of the famous catalogue of 1881, and in this capacity gave personal atten tion to the lists of several of the chapters. The Civil W ar had caused many losses in the roster of the fraternity. Whole chapters, North and South, had I

B A IR D

M E M O R IA L — W E S L E Y A N

H O U SE

entered that struggle and information about many of their members was extremely difficult to find. W ith the infinite patience which characterized his whole life, Mr. Baird followed clue after clue until material was obtained about a large number of men who had been practically lost to fra ternity knowledge for many years. He gave a great deal of assistance in the preparation of the catalogue of 1899 and he was an editor of the catalogue published in 1905. The shock caused by the death of his only son affected Mr. Baird seriously and he was never as strong after that event as he was before. O f an impetuous nature and working at high speed always, he was enabled to accomplish many things under physical conditions which were anything but satisfactory. His death came suddenly on Thursday, March 15, 1917, fol lowing a night of great suffering. There is no question that the history of the fraternity will always record his name as that of one of its most dis-

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tinguished members. His varied services mark him as one entitled to most grateful praise. He won and will hold for himself a place in the annals of the fraternity for all time. The funeral services were held at the home in South Orange on Satur day afternoon, March 17, in the presence of a large company of friends. They were simple in their character, consisting of religious exercises in charge of the Methodist minister, and an address by Francis W. Shepardson, the General Secretary of Beta Theta Pi. A t the close of the address the members of the fraternity who were present sang the Beta doxology. The body was interred in the Baird family lot in the Trinity Cemetery in New York City.

TH E LOUNGE A T W E SLEYA N

A t the funeral Mr. Shepardson said: “ It was just thirty-seven years ago this month when my acquaintance with Baird began. I say ‘Baird,’ using the short but Joving word of com panionship and comradeship which we all used in speaking of him or to him. I had just been admitted to the fraternity through initiation into a small western chapter. He had come a year earlier into Beta Theta Pi through the combination with the fraternity of Alpha Sigma Chi, in which he had played an important part. Being myself only eighteen years old at the time, I had thought of him as much older relatively to me than he actually was; for he had already attained that most coveted position in life: he was an authority. The first communication I ever sent him, written in 1880, was one seeking information regarding college fraternities. The last I wrote him was also one seeking information. I withheld it from the mails after the message reached me announcing his death.

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“ Sometimes in the early days of our acquaintance and friendship our ideas crossed a little and we said sharp things one of the other. Only a few days ago he wrote me, telling with some glee how he had found among old letters he was editing for the fraternity one from me in which I said: | ‘Baird would not know anything about that because he does not know Greek, | and he is not very well educated anyway.’ It was the fling of one schooled in a classical college about another who had been trained as an engineer. But that was long before I discovered that with Baird the process of education did not cease until the end came. Through wide reading, extended travel and much reflection/ he made himself a highly cultured man. His profession was that of a patent lawyer. One talking with him in a certain line, how ever, might easily think him an expert in mineralogy. He was a trained

T H E IN G L E S ID E A T W E S L E Y A N Showing memorial tablet to Raimond Duy Baird

geologist. He was wonderfully versed in constitutional history and law. He was a connoisseur in art, and in other lines he was a remarkably wellinformed and thoroughly educated man. O f course our occasional clashings came before we learned the important lesson that men with different attitudes toward certain questions and with temperaments like or unlike may work harmoniously together when the realization comes that they are work ing toward a common end. “ The last letter I received from him, ending our long correspondence, was written in the late afternoon of his last day of life. It reached me twentysix hours after he had gone. His closing words, except for the familiar salutation of brotherhood, seem pathetic in view of what happened during the next few hours. He asked me to get certain records from two of the

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chapters for use by him in editing a collection of old Beta letters running back many years and throwing much light upon the fraternity history. He ended the paragraph, But I can’t wait long.’ That was absolutely character istic of Baird. He was impetuous. He was impatient. While other men thought, he wrought. Reaching his conclusions quickly as to what ought to be done, he wanted to see the thing accomplished right away. Many a time when officers of the fraternity asked his advice about lines of action and there was practical agreement as to what should be done, his quick question was ‘W hy don’t you do it ?’ He did. “ A t this moment of review of Baird’s life, three distinct accomplishments appeal to me as worthy of particular notice. “ And first: he gave college secret societies a place in literature. Before he published in 1879 American College Fraternities, now past its eighth edition and greatly enlarged, information about these organizations was slight. Even the best posted of fraternity workers knew little of the history or of the activities of their own organization and less about those they called their rivals. Baird gathered together the data from many sources, classified and arranged the facts, and showed for the first time that a fraternity chapter not only was a part of a larger organization, but also that this larger or ganization was part of a system which had grown up in various institutions of the country. By the very fact of the collection and publication of this information he gave all fraternities an increased appreciation of their own position and power as factors in shaping life and conduct. He taught them self-respect. He stimulated them to greater efforts. In any account of the steady change in sentiment regarding college fraternities Baird must be given a large measure of credit. When he first began his study, the secret societies were small groups of students, often on unfriendly relationships with the faculty and not yet aroused to a sense of their importance and their potentiality. When Baird died, in more than one hundred colleges and universities in the United States, the fraternities, housed in their own homes representing an investment of several millions of dollars, had the respect of faculty and student body and were utilized by president and dean in their administration of student affairs. It is impossible now to do more than mention this thought; but, if it were to be developed, the influence which Baird thus had indirectly on fraternity growth would be shown to be both great and powerful. For many years Baird also took an active part in promoting better relationships among the different fraternities. For eight consecutive years he was one of the three representatives of the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity at the National Interfraternity Conference held in New York on the Saturday following Thanksgiving, and in all of the meetings he was. an important factor, as leaders of other organizations turned to him for information and for counsel. Whoever may publish in the future a ‘Manual of American College Fraternities’ must have as his foundation the facts first collected and presented by Baird. “ In the second place, he gave to Beta Theta Pi far greater prominence among organizations of this type because of his many years of devoted service. His inquisitive nature led him when a mere boy to seek informa tion about the fraternity. He wrote many letters. He talked with elder statesmen. He gathered his facts from many sources, retaining them with a marvelous memory which was the constant astonishment of all who knew

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him. In 1894 he published under the title Fraternity Studies, a series of arti cles which he had first prepared as contributions to the Beta Theta P i maga zine. A t a later time this volume, much enlarged and enriched, appeared as the Handbook of Beta Theta Pi. Into this besides the history, he introduced many things having sentimental value; and a large part of the strength of Beta Theta Pi has always been due to its appreciation of the things which appeal to sentiment. As early as 1880 he began working upon catalogue mak ing for the fraternity. He was one of the committee on that famous cata logue of 1881, the result of most arduous labors in tracing out members long separated from contact with the fraternity because of the breaking of ties caused by the Civil War. A t a later time he was the editor-in-chief of an edition of the catalogue. Not long ago he prepared with infinite care a notable volume entitled ‘Betas of Achievement.’ This told in brief biograph ical sketches of the many men who wear our badge who had accomplished something definite in their life work. A t the time of his death he was busily engaged in preparing copy and reading proof for a volume of Beta Letters. These missives, all written before 1879 and many of them by men who later became eminent, are rich in information and suggestion, when in terpreted, as he planned to interpret them, in the light of his knowledge as the historian of the fraternity. “ Then for thirty-five years he was more or less closely associated with the editorial work of the fraternity. Part of the time he was a member of the staff, and for nearly a quarter of a century continuously he was in sole editorial charge of the magazine known as Beta Theta Pi. It is utterly impossible for me to indicate the appreciation of the fraternity for this great labor of love or to express the feeling we now have of the over whelming loss which is ours as Baird leaves us. W e tried in 1915 to let him know how we loved him. He went with us on a special train across the continent to San Francisco, and in the convention we gave him a beautiful vase of pure classic design upon which was this inscription: “ ‘A F

r a t e r n it y

is t o r ia n ,

F F

eta

r a t e r n it y

r ie n d ,

c h ie v e m e n t , r a t e r n it y

io g r a p h e r ,

d it o r .

C o u n selo r, B

r o t h e r .’

f‘W e well realize that his work for our fraternity has been monumental. W e know that our loss is irreparable. “ But there was a third way in which Baird had great influence. He liked boys. He liked to gather some youthful convention delegates about him and to listen to them as they unfolded the thoughts which had come to them. And then he either told them, with that remarkable conversational charm of his, how the thing proposed had been tried and why it had failed, or why it had been abandoned in favor of someting better, or, thrilling and stimulat ing by his manner and his words, he used the compelling phrase already quoted ‘W hy don’t you do it ?’ No one knows, no one ever could know, how wide his influence has been with young men. If there should be thought just for a moment of the power on young life of his editorials in the fra ternity magazine during twenty-four years of unceasing endeavor, this un known increment of his influence would be vastly increased.

BETA LORE Just a few days ago I sat before the firelight in the beautiful memorial chapter house at Middletown, erected by a sorrowing father and mother for the use of those who through many years shall belong to the chapter claimed and loved by their only child, Raimond Duy Baird. A s I sat there I thought I knew what was in the mind of these parents as they made their generous contribution for the boys of Beta Theta P i ; for Baird was one of those who had caught the vision of the founders of Beta Theta Pi. He knew that a college fraternity was something more than a mere collection of youth. He sensed the power of an organization whose founders declared that it should

W IL L IA M

R A IM O N D B A IR D

stand for mutual assistance in the honorable labors and aspirations of life, for devotion to the cultivation of the intellect, for unsullied friendship and unfaltering fidelity. He knew from many conversations with older men the meaning of the phrase â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Once a Beta,'Always a Beta.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; In other words, he discovered early in his fraternity career that the influences brought to bear in the formative years were to be lasting. That is why he and his wife, who shared his beliefs regarding the fraternity, found the best memorial for their beloved son a chapter house from which beneficent influences might radiate through all the years in rich helpfulness to the boys of the Wesleyan chapter.

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“ To sum it all up, there has been won by William Raimond Baird that most coveted of all things, immortality; the immortality resultant from human service. It truly may be said of him, He has fought a good fight, he has finished the course, he has kept the faith. For through all the com ing years the name of Baird will be known as that of the first historian of American College Fraternities; his power will be felt in the lives of men whom he strongly influenced through his inspiring personality and his friend ly counsel in ways which no mortal knowledge can fully apprehend. “A s for Beta Theta Pi, he has found a permanent place in a small group of faithful souls whose services are recalled with gratitude and honor in every sketch of fraternity history; whose praise is proclaimed at every an nual convention or other large gathering where Betas m eet; and of whom the boys love to sing in sweet melody and with tender sentiment : They rest, they sleep the dreamless sleep, W hile cycles move, But in our hearts eternally we keep Their faith and love.”

Willis O. Robb, longtime associate of Baird in devoted service to Beta Theta Pi, paid him this tribute: “ A s I was not on the committee that in the summer of 1879 represented Beta Theta Pi in the negotiations with the Alpha Sigma Chi delegates, my first meeting with William R. Baird was at the Baltimore Convention of 1880. W e met at a good many conventions of the immediately following years and of course had rather frequent intercourse throughout the whole thirty-six years of our acquaintance. During the early 8o’s I was editing or assisting in editing the Beta Theta Pi, and only Francis W . Shepardson, the present General Secretary of the Fraternity compared at all with Baird in the quantity of copy furnished me during those years. Baird was already working on the early editions of American College Fraternities and get ting ready to prepare his really wonderful Fraternity Studies in the early history of Beta Theta Pi. To me as to most Betas, and especially to most younger Betas of that generation, the extraordinary kinds and quantities of fraternity knowledge possessed by Baird, at a time when there were al most no other fraternity students in the country, appeared to be something almost uncanny, and I feel very sure there was a more or less unacknowl edged tradition among us that no man who had so delved into the facts of Beta Theta Pi could also be or hope to become saturated with its spirit to the same degree that had already for a long time marked the really typical Betas of our personal and fraternity knowledge. That was a tradition which died rather more slowly, as it now seems to me, than could have been ex pected, in view of the steady contributions Baird continued to make to all departments of our fraternity literature, not only to its chronological and biographical sections. It is quite true that Baird had the instinctive con tempt of the man of knowledge for the kinds of enthusiasm that are based upon a practically total lack of knowledge, but for the enthusiasm underlaid by real enlightenment he had from the first an abiding sympathy and came more and more to live in its spirit. To one who met him and began gradually to make his real acquaintance, his mind seemed at first to be equipped with a large number of most disconcerting and astonishing tentacles, but it in variably proved itself to be, nevertheless, a thoroughly human and fra

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ternal mind, large and rich, combining in an unusual degree the ordinary unmixable elements of zeal and knowledge. Our personal acquaintance was an entirely delightful one, and his figure looms very large in my appraise ment of the things of Beta Theta Pi.” John Calvin Hanna, who served the fraternity for nineteen years as General Secretary, Trustee and President, said of Brother Baird: I first met William Raimond Baird at Chicago in 1881. This was the first of the many conventions for which Baird acted as secretary and I recall vividly the peculiar alertness and efficiency so characteristic of the man. Every item of personalia, all floating information, all were seized upon, quickly and concisely recorded and filed for use in catalogue, magazine or other publication and in general for that marvelous encyclopedia of fra-

T H E S T A IR W A Y A T W E SL E Y A N

ternity knowledge that belonged to his extraordinary mind. Every man differs from every other man but surely Baird’s personality and gifts stand out alone, not only in the history of American college fraternities, a distinc tion admitted by everybody; but I doubt whether there ever was any other man who had exactly the same wide, varied and exact knowledge of men ana movements, especially in educational matters. His memory was prodigious, and his mastery of details was unique. So much will be admitted without controversy. But his services to Beta Theta Pi extend much farther and affect the fraternity much more pro foundly than is implied in the possession of these unusual gifts. His study of the causes and influences that operate in American life, and of the movements of the present as based on the life of the past, and furthermore his estimates and speculations as to tendencies in the future, all these im

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pressed me deeply and repeatedly during the many years when we were intimately associated in fraternity work. He had the gift moreover of seeing clearly the other fellow’s point of view, without in the least being swept off his feet by such vision. His sizing up of an argument or a man was likely to be clarifying and in a large measure of instances was right the first time. It might for the time seem almost cruel but time would show it right, biased neither by a feeling of sympathy nor by a feeling of hostility. The clear atmosphere of intellect prevailed. And this does not imply a lack of kindliness— far from it. Every one of us who have been .associated with Baird has a warm spot for the memory of his kindly, genial ways and his real and sensible brotherliness. Space forbids a hundred reminiscences that crowd upon one of his say ings and doings associated with Wooglin or Niagara or some other spot where, in the old days, things were done. No phase of my enforced absence from fraternity conventions for the past few years has caused me more regret than the fact that it has made me see less of Baird in the later and mellower years of his fraternity life and service. His work for Beta Theta Pi, for the college fraternity world and for his country will endure and the lessons which he has helped to teach young men will be far-reaching and of vital importance. Conspicuous among these were the beliefs that the field of our fraternity must be as wide as the nation, that character rather than advantage must be the test of member ship, and that service is the highest aim for a man or a fraternity.” The esteem in which Mr. Baird was held by leaders of other fraternities and their recognition of the great loss which the fraternity world suffered in his death was indicated by the following expressions: The Interfraternity Conference: Mr. William Raimond Baird died at his home in South Orange, New Jersey, on March 15, 1917. For over thirty years he had occupied not only a prominent, but in many respects a unique position in the College Fraternity world. His Manual of American College Fraternities, which was published first in 1879 and which had run through eight editions, was not only a standard work, but was the only one of its kind. He contributed the article on “ American College Fraternities” in the last edition of the Britannica and from time to time sundry other articles concerning various phases of fraternity activities to magazines and periodicals. For approximately a quarter of a century he was the editor of the magazine of his own fra ternity. He had been a delegate to every meeting of the Conference, and from time to time had served on many of its important committees. His vast knowledge of the American college fraternity system and of the several fraternities gave his opinions great weight and made his counsel always wel come and valuable. The Executive Committee of the Interfraternity Con ference takes this opportunity to spread the foregoing upon its minutes and to record in a permanent form, inadequate though it be, the deep sense of loss which has been suffered by the college fraternity world, the Conference and each member of this committee in his death. (Extract from the Minutes of a Meeting of the Executive Committee held April 2, 1917.)

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Walter B. Palmer, Past President of Phi Delta Theta: A great man in the fraternity world— the Chief of the Greeks— has fal len, and college fraternity men everywhere will long mourn the death of William Raimond Baird. For nearly forty years he stood as the most prominent fraternity worker in the United States. He came into prominence in 1879, when, through his instrumentality, his fraternity, Alpha Sigma Chi, united with Beta Theta Pi. In the same year the first edition of his Ameri-

W E S L E Y A N W O R L D W A R M E M O R IA L F or Gold Star Brothers Lt. Robert A rchy Bowlby, ’ 10; Joseph Truman Bray, ’19; Roy Livingston Burns, ’ 10; Anton Frederick Hans, ’ 12, and Lt. W ilm er Edgar Herr, ’15.

can College Fraternities was published. Its appearance closed the period of the dark ages in college fraternity history. Before this comprehensive and invaluable compendium was issued, the Greeks were ignorant about all fraternities other than their own. Only three or four fraternity journals were published, and some of them did not exchange. Baird’s Manual con tributed more toward the expansion, development and broadening-out of fraternities than any other influence. Each successive edition was an enlarge ment and improvement, and the eighth, 1915, is a marvel of completeness. .

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Undoubtedly Beta Theta Pi was more indebted to Baird than to any one else for its remarkable development in a few decades from a provincial to a powerful national fraternity. But he was not a narrow fraternity partisan. He was distinguished for the catholicity of his views regarding all fraterni ties. He was ready to criticise his own fraternity as any other, as quick to commend others as Beta Theta Pi. He helped other fraternities in many ways. I could instance one chapter of Phi Delta Theta that was established with his active assistance, and I know that he actively aided two southern fraternities to establish chapters in northern institutions. He advocated extension for Beta Theta Pi, and recommended it for other fraternities, as the educational institutions of the country developed. He believed that col lege fraternities should be, not sectional, but national. I remember that, years before fraternities entered Arizona and New Mexico, he told me that he considered the universities of those States desirable locations for chapters. A s the editor of The Beta Theta Pi, Baird was the veteran among fra ternity journalists. As Hellenic editor of the Phi Delta Theta Scroll, I have read exchanges closely, and I do not hesitate to say that I found his edi torials more liberal, suggestive and constructive than those in any other fraternity magazine. Into the Beta Theta P i he injected a great deal of his inspiring personality. He had confidence in the usefulness of fraterni ties, and vision as to the prominent place they are destined to occupy in American college life. A s the historian of Phi Delta Theta, I was always deeply interested in the historical work he did for Beta Theta Pi. He pro duced two editions of The Handbook of Beta Theta Pi, and edited the minutes of the fraternity’s conventions held during its first forty years. I have corresponded with Baird continuously since 1879, and have known him personally for twenty years. M y last meeting with him was at the Interfraternity Conference held in 1915, when he told me of plans for issuing new fraternity books including a book of early Beta correspondence. He showed the effects of illness, and at the editorial dinner he excused himself early in the evening, after asking me to preside in his stead. I warned him against working so hard, and urged him to conserve his health. I feel sure that in his enthusiasm for fraternity work he overtaxed his strength and hastened his death. He kept it up to the end. M y last letter from him, a holographic one relating to the Beta letters, was dated February 7, 1917. Baird was a successful lawyer and wrote several books on legal subjects. He impressed me as a man of splendid ability, fine character, sympathetic nature and generous impulses. The fraternity men of America should erect a monument to their leader for over a third of a century. He occupied the highest place in the councils of the Greeks, and in the esteem of college fraternity men. There is no one to take his place. • And we shall not see his like again. George Banta, Editor of “ Banta’s Greek Exchange “ When a man has reached three score years of his allotted span he finds that there are beside him but few of the throng whom he called friends in those long ago dead years. His backward look falls upon a row of marble markers where each friend fell and he conies to see little else on that trail behind him that comes out of the mysterious beginning of things. And as the friends one by one drop out along the road one turns to those who still

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plod beside him with greater love and finds new comfort and strength com ing from their presence. The first of those white markers in my life stands in the foothills of Colorado in its university town. The newest one is just being raised over the grave of William Raimond Baird. Probably the young men who read this will not understand me when I say that I mourn the loss of a dear friend. But one has gone with whom for forty-two years I have at all times been in close touch, in whose judgment I had faith, whose word I always found absolute, whose loyalty to conviction and to friend was un swerving. A common ground of interest in the developing fraternity sys tem brought us together in 1875 and there has been no year since then in which we have not kept up our friendship by letter, if we did not meet. In the death of William Raimond Baird the whole group of fraternity men of the United States has met a loss that is not soon to be repaired. He was a man who saw the fraternity as it is— saw its fault, and its strength. He was big, for he could mercilessly reprove the fault; he was wise, for he strove to repair i t ; he was kind, for he loved the boys even when he re proved or admonished. O f course we all think that he made a mistake in his judgments sometimes, but one could always say to William Raimond Baird that he was wrong, and meet always his smile, and not the frown of a small nature. I think one of the things that kept the friendship of Mr. Baird and myself warm was the fact that we often disagreed as to things and ways and means. There are few people with whom you can disagree and come off unscarred or unscarring, but Mr. Baird was one such man. W e Greeks have lost a big man from our group. I feel that we have lost the biggest man we have had in his relation to our own cult. I do not know where is the man today to take his place. And we have lost a friend— for William Raimond Baird was the sincere friend of all fraternity men. And I have lost a friend, one of the few left of those who have so long sojourned with me on the road of life. My head is bowed in sorrow that he is gone. A big, clean, strong man has left us, but what he has done for his own fraternity, and what he has done for all of us will abide with us, though he is gone. While writing these words my sense of a personal loss is so dominating that my expression has been almost wholly influenced by it and I have left in the background my sense of the tremendous loss that the fraternity cause has sustained. Time will, as always, blunt the feeling of personal loss, but it will bring also a steadily increasing sense of the loss to our cult— that Mr. Baird’s death is to all fraternity men. When he began his labors of research and publicity four decades ago, the fraternity system was almost formless, without coherence, and made no impression of value upon the out side world. The work which he did and which he so faithfully continued to do for so many years, raised the fraternity to the dignity and rank of an Establishment. While his work as author of American College Fraternities stands as a visible, concrete achievement, its value to us was really no greater than his ceaseless daily labors with and among all fraternity men. He was the authority to whom we all turned. On the very day of his death I received a letter from him written two days before in which he discussed with me a new activity, having in it no possible pecuniary profit, which we were to

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work out together. And it is a joy to know that he most literally worked up to the day of his death. A strong man is gone from us. I have lost a friend and, in that wider sense that Mr. Baird himself loved to think and do, I have lost a brother. The years that are left me are too few to hope that I shall ever know another just like him.”

B R O N Z E T A B L E T IN C O L U M B IA C H A P T E R H O U SE

Mrs. William Raimond Baird died suddenly on November 29, 1919, of valvular trouble in her heart, her ailment being quite similar to that which attended Mr. Baird’s last illness. Official representatives of the fraternity attended the funeral and a cluster of Beta roses was placed upon the coffin. She was the daughter of George Washington Mansfield, Wesleyan, ’58. In an editorial note, written by Francis W . Shepardson, editor-in-chief, the fraternity magazine said of h e r: “ Mrs. Baird is dead. It was a startling message which came over the wire the day the national Interfraternity Conference was meeting in New York. The summons to her came suddenly as it had come to her cherished husband. The home in South Orange had just been sold. The future was to be in new environment. With husband and son both gone and all fondest hopes shattered, perhaps Azrael was not unwelcome when he called. A gracious lady has passed on, a charming personality whose influence in Beta Theta Pi will long linger. “ Some Betas met her for the first time at the Swampscott Convention. They found a sweet woman filled with devotion to the fraternity. Other Betas had known her for forty years. They had known always of her loyal interest. The Betas signalized her wedding to William Raimond Baird by a silver pitcher of special pattern, and the union of the two souls in the par sonage at Wilbraham was no more complete than was the almost simul taneous union of the two with Beta Theta Pi. In all the years of fidelity to the fraternity during which Baird gave so much of himself, Mrs. Baird re mained a constant companion and comrade. She attended many conventions. She used to be a familiar figure at Wooglin-on-Chautauqua. She was on the special train to California in 1915.

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When Raimond Duy Baird came to the home, she watched his daily growth with a prayer that he might be a Beta some day. She rejoiced when his name was written on the roll at Wesleyan. Her hopes and her hus band’s ran together in the years of preparation of the only son. When the hard blow was struck and all the sweetness and charm of life seemed gone, with Duy dead, then it was her fine soul, strengthened and sustained by her

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OF AMERICAN GdXBGfiil PATERNITY LITERATIIRE DEPOSITED B Y B E T A THETA PI IN

THE N E W Y O R K PUBLIC LIB R A R Y noble Christian character, which became a sheet anchor for her completely prostrated husband whose personal ambitions were lost in cherished dreams for his child. She had a large part in the plans for the memorial chapter house at Middletown. She caught the inspiration of the Beta vision. She saw the limitless possibilities of the fraternity and recognized the values in young womanhood. That is why her eyes moistened as she read the story of Beta service, sacrifice, sorrow and suffering in the World War. That is why her eyes flashed with joy when some convention delegate at Swamps-

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cott confided in her his own belief in Beta Theta Pi, his own decision to make his life count for something. “ W e are happy because Mrs. Baird was at Swampscott. It made her happy because the fraternity established the ‘Baird Fund’ and assured her that her husband’s devotion would be kept in perpetual remembrance. It made her happy to have the adoring respect of young men who sought her out and told her their sense of the honor conferred upon them by being permitted to meet her and greet her. The sincerity of it all impressed her greatly. She was proud to be known about the hotel as a Beta mother. And every Beta was proud of her. “ Her influence upon the fraternity is destined to endure. Just how great it may be in all of its future ramifications no one can declare. But there is a new note in the familiar lines of the Beta girl song: ‘M ay our brothers ever prove W orthy o f such noble love Long as time shall last or earth shall have a day.’ ”

When his only son died, William Raimond Baird wrote for the Beta Theta P i: “ I have never attempted to intrude my personal affairs upon the fraternity; but by way of explanation of much delay on my part in cor respondence and the loss of some letters sent to me, and some inattention to detail in editing the Beta Theta P i during the publication of the current volume, I wish to say that my only son, Raimond Duy Baird, Wesleyan, ’09, was taken seriously ill with pleurisy the last week in October, 1910. He was taken to a sanitarium near Liberty, New York, at once, but it developed into a virulent type of tuberculosis and after an acute, but lin gering illness, he died April 29, 1911. During all this period, often for days at a time, I was at his bedside. But all that money, skill and love could do were of no avail. Naturally I was unable to do the work upon the magazine with the usual attention to detail. “ M y son was well known in the fraternity. A s a little boy he attended the banquet of the convention of 1893, and he has been with me at many Beta gatherings and festivities, and since he became a member of the fra ternity he has been most active in promoting its welfare. He was both a son and a brother to me. He was only twenty-three years of age, a time when life was full of promise for him. He had a fine mind, a most winning personality. He was engaged to be married to a beautiful and estimable girl. He was a loving son, a devoted lover, and a loyal Beta brother. The world will never without him be the same to his father and mother, his sweetheart, and some of his Beta brothers.” O SO N G T H A T L A S T S T o R a i m o n d D u y B a ik d , Wesleyan ’09

W e draw our chairs around the hearth. To lift our voices as in days When circle full, a perfect chord Ascended to fair Beta’s praise. The fire bums low, far in the flame W e see the one who once a chair Drew near with us to make the name O f Beta ring with praises rare.

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BETA LORE O song that lasts ! O altar fire! That whitens in the dimming light, Thy music swell, thy blaze renew For him who faithful in the fight Went forth, thy treasure in his hand, To hold aloft that men might see Tho long the days, or night come fast, Thy sons their glory yield to thee. R

alph

elles

eeler,

Wesleyan

’04

EDWARD BRUCE CHANDLER Edward Bruce Chandler, one of the best beloved Betas of Chicago, died of pneumonia at his home on June 6, 1904. He was born at South Hart ford, New York, January 30, 1838, of good Colonial stock. One of his ancestors was Governor Haines, the first governor of Connecticut. A n other was Thomas Lord, an exile from Massachusetts on account of his religious belief. Two of his great-grand fathers fought in the Revolution. One of them, Captain Israel Harris, was with Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga. The Chand ler family moved to Romeo, Michigan, in 1845. In 1854, he entered the University of Michigan and was graduated with the Class of 1858. He at once took employ ment with the Rock Island Railway as a telegrapher, and remained in that employ until 1865, when he became the first superintendent of the Department of Electricity of Chicago. This position he resigned in 1875 to become the western representative of the Gamewell Fire Alarm Telegraph Company, a connection which he continued during the remainder of his active business career. He was the first treasurer of the American Elec trical Society. EDW ARD BRUCE CH ANDLER In 1872, he married Miss Emily Michigan ’58 Moseley, of Princeton, Illinois, who died in 1893. Their two children survive them : Alice, Michigan ’98, wife of Colonel Oliver L. Spaulding, Jr., U. S. Artillery, Michigan ’95, and Cap tain George M. Chandler, U. S. Army, Michigan ’98. It is doubtful if a more loyal Beta or son of Michigan ever lived. He held successively all the offices in his college class and is said by one of the deans to have attended more Michigan Commencements than any other graduate not a member of the faculty. On learning of his death, his class postponed for one year the dedication of the tablet presented by the class in commemoration of its christening of the Tappan-Oak forty-six years before.

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In the fraternity he was one of the original and continuous subscribers to the magazine. O f the many conventions he attended, he was president of that of 1892. He was a member of the Board of Trustees during 1894-97. One of the founders of the Wooglin Club, he stood behind it as long as it continued in existence. He was one of the original members of the Chicago Alumni chapter, of which he honored all the offices. In 1873, he was one of three to whom we owe our Northwestern chapter; and a like debt is due him for the Chicago chapter in 1892. The Loyal Legion, of which he was a member, recorded of him the following just tribute: “ Edward Bruce Chandler was a modest, dignified gentleman. O f rugged honesty, his word was a bond at par. While he was forceful and strong of opinion, yet he left not one enemy in the world. No more generous heart ever beat in a man’s breast. His devotion to his family and friends had no limit. During the years he lived he won the love of every man who knew him, and his memory will not grow dim in the keeping of his friends.”

JOHN SAMUEL GOODWIN When he was in college John Samuel Goodwin, De Pauw ’77 caught the Beta vision. When he died in 1920 the fraternity lost a distinguished son. With him the old slogan “ Once a Beta, Always a Beta, Everywhere a Beta” was a moving principle. His interest in the fraternity was active and aggres sive up to the last. He belonged to a notable Beta family, the tenth member of which Mortimer Goodwin, was initiated into the fraternity, September 28. 1919. These ten Betas were: Dr. John Reeves Goodwin, Delta, ’45, charter member, trustee of De Pauw University; Brigadier General Robert James Goodwin, Alpha, ’58; Charles Francis Goodwin, Delta, ’71, trustee of De Pauw University; Judge John S. Goodwin, LL.D ., Delta, ’77, trustee of De Pauw University; William Ransdell Goodwin, Delta, ’83; Robert S. John, Delta, ’97, son of President J. P. D. John, cousin of the Goodwins; Captain John Pemberton. Goodwin, Delta, ’01; William Robert Johnston, Beta Delta, Cornell, ’04, son-in-law of Judge Goodwin; Lieutenant Thomas Arthur Goodwin, Lambda Rho, ’ 16; Mortimer Goodwin, Lambda Rho, ’23. John S. Goodwin, or Judge Goodwin, as he was afterwards generally known, began to take an interest in the affairs of the fraternity at large before he received his diploma from Indiana Asbury, as De Pauw was then named. He began to delve into the mysteries of the old “ cake box” at Greencastle, in which the archives of the famous Delta chapter were preserved. This led him to study the early history of Beta Theta Pi. He developed such enthusiasm in it that he was made historiographer of the fraternity and in that capacity rescued from oblivion many facts associated with the early days. He had opportunity to meet and converse with many of the men who had helped to build the fraternity, so that he obtained his data by the living voices of those who made the history. While in Kansas in 1882 he sent to the Cincinnati Convention a curious inkwell made from one of the vertebrae of a buffalo and this was used by the convention secre tary. The inkstand was preserved for a time in the collection located in Room No. 11, Apollo Building in Cincinnati, but disappeared with many other priceless possessions of the fraternity years ago.

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r wA a\ born in Edinburgh, Indiana, March 16, 1858, graduated from Indiana Asbury, as above stated, in 1877, ranking at the head of his class, and later received the honorary degrees of Master of A rts and Doctor of Laws from De Pauw University. He went to Beloit, Kansas, to practice law, where he was married October 7, 1880, to Miss M ary E. Forbes, of Danville, Illinois. She and a daughter survive him, the daughter being Mrs. Susan Goodwin Johnston, w ife of William R. Johnston, Cornell ’04. He was for many years closely associated with his brother, William Ransdeli Goodwin, De Pauw ’83, in connection with fancy cattle, he himself being greatly interested in Aberdeen-Angus cattle. When in 1902 he bought the

T H E A P O L L O B U IL D IN G A picture taken in 1927 showing the Cincinnati building which, for years, in “Room 11”, contained the fraternity headquarters.

Ellsworth Farm at Naperville, Illinois, he stocked it with these cattle. The herd was the second one of the kind in the United States and famous wher ever stock men gathered together. His brother was for a long time manag ing editor of the Breeders’ Gazette. In 1891, Goodwin, who had been county attorney, judge of the district court and judge of the city court of Beloit, Kansas, moved to Chicago where he formed a partnership with General John C. Black. He was a specialist as counsel for banking firms, representing the Bank of Montreal for seven teen years. For sixteen years preceding his death, his country home at Naperville, which was called “ Heatherton,” was the mecca for a pilgrimage of the Betas of Chicago and vicinity. Usually on the first Saturday in June the Betas with their lady friends went to Naperville on a special train. There in the afternoon and evening they were the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Goodwin. All the good things of the farm were spread upon the bounteous

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board and with a spirit of genuine Beta enthusiasm everywhere manifested these pilgrimages became famous throughout the fraternity. Judge Good win was a lover of his fellows, a thirty-second degree Mason; member of the Union League, Hamilton and Saddle and Sirloin Clubs of Chicago; president of the DuPage County Bar Association, and a trustee of his alma mater, De Pauw University. He died in the Palmer House in Chicago on March 14, 1920. Had he lived two days longer he would have been sixty-two years old. A strange occurrence was the destruction of his fine country home by fire just about two hours after his death. W ith it went a complete file of the Beta Theta P i which he had presented to the fraternity but had deferred its delivery pending the establishment of a na tional archives depositary.

A BETA ILLUMINATOR To the fine workmanship of Coella Lindsay Ricketts, Ohio ’84 the fra ternity is indebted for the coats of arms which are now found in every chap ter house of Beta Theta Pi. While the original idea of having such armorial designs and much of the detail of the planning must be credited to George M. Chandler, Michigan ’98, the technique of the illuminating is the work of Ricketts. The arms are artistic and beautiful and of materials which will endure for ages. He also sought the privilege of making another dis tinct contribution by preparing for the fraternity a form of charter which should be at once dignified and beautiful. All charters issued in recent years have been prepared under his immediate supervision. Because of these two notable contributions to the fraternity, i.e., the arms and the charter, the name of Ricketts rightly has place among the builders of Beta Theta Pi. But he also deserves distinction because of his achievement in a highly specialized field of endeavor. He has made himself one of the world’s great engrossers and illuminators. His name is familiar and honored in the V ati can, the British Museum, and in other great world centers where the artis tic is valued and preserved. He has made a study of initial letters and has one of the finest collections in the world. His private library is rich with rare volumes bearing upon his specialty. He discovered the secret processes, long carefully guarded by the monks who made wonderful illuminations in volumes of vellum, now sought by the connoisseur for their beauty as well as for their historical worth. He has studied the engrossers and the en gravers of every century and knows how and with what tools they per formed their tasks. He and his staff of helpers have to do many things of more or less commercial character, such, for example, as the filling in of diplomas for a number of universities and colleges. But his heart is in the beautiful and the artistic. He is in great demand for the preparation of memorials and special letters and resolutions ordered by boards of trustees or directors or individuals. Ricketts tells how, when still in dresses, his attention was directed to two lines of script underneath a picture which he found in a family doctor book in his father’s home. He copied and recopied those lines, studying the style of letters and apparently getting the inspiration which molded his whole career. He secured from his mother some letters, written by his father in a hand that was unusual and almost like steel engraving-. so clear cut

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were the lines. He studied and copied his father’s writing. Then one day he had the chance to take a short course in penmanship under a highly successful teacher who came down the Muskingum River from Zanesville to McConellsville to conduct a class. Ricketts went into this with his whole soul, sometimes working all night and copying while others passed the hours of the evening in pleasure. His reward came in the exceptional commen dation of his teacher, and what was more surprising, in a proposition that he be assistant to the teacher in a similar series of lessons the next summer. Out of this experience he gained confidence enough to seek a position as teacher of penmanship in the public schools in Athens, Ohio, and with the money thus eamed^lle paid his way through Ohio University, where he be came a member of Beta Theta*Pi_. A fter leaving college he spent some time in the prosaic duties of a book keeper. A ll the time, however, he had the vision before him. That was, to open an office in Chicago where he might do fine work in writing, in engross ing, in illuminating, just as in the long years of the past men have made their living in such a way. His mother and other friends thought him fool ish when he gave up a sure salary and position for an uncertainty. The first few months seemed to sustain their judgment, for the only bit of work which came to him was the writing of some calling cards announcing a day at home for some kindly disposed lady. But by and by he created the atmosphere and with it the demand for the work, so that now the commis sions pour in upon him and he is recognized and sought by all those who want the distinctive and are willing to pay the price for it. Throughout the years of struggle and in the days of success as well, there has been the regular vacation spent in the treasure houses of Europe and the steady growth in knowledge of all the intricate and marvelous details of the scribe’s art. Beta Theta Pi has no member more worthy of recognition as a master than Ricketts.

R E V . S A M U E L H. Y O U N G , W IT H H IS D O G T E A M

A FAMOUS BETA ALA SKA N MISSIONARY On Friday, September 2, 1927, Dr. Samuel Hall Young, Wooster ’7$, died in a Clarksburg, West Virginia, hospital, as the result of being struck by an interurban car near Zeisburg, between Fairmont and Clarksburg. Dr. Young was on his way to a pioneer celebration to be held Sunday at French

HE DIDN’T DIE j

Creek, near Buckhannon. He was to have been the principal speaker. He was born in Butler, Pennsylvania, September 12, 1847, son ° f the Reverend Loyal Y . and Margaret (Johnston) Young. A fter his degree at Wooster in 1875, he studied a year at Princeton Theological Seminary and then trans ferred to Western Theological Seminary at Allegheny, Pennsylvania, gradu ating in 1878. He was ordained June 10, 1878, and went at once to Fort Wrangel, Alaska, as a missionary, establishing the first Protestant church in that territory in 1879. He visited all parts of Alaska and the Siberian coast by boat, traveling long distances in winter with a dog team. From 1888 to 1897 he was a Presbyterian pastor in the States, ministering to churches in Long Beach, California; Cabery, Illinois; Cedar Falls, Iowa, and Wooster, Ohio. Then he was sent to the Klondike country, where he organized a church at Dawson in 1898 and started missions in other places. In 1901 he was made general superintendent of Alaska missions and until 1912 was active in Skagway, Fairbanks, Teller, Cordora, and Iditarod. From 1913 to 1921 he was in New York as special representative of the Presbyterian Board of Missions; then general missionary for Alaska, 19221925, and special representative for these missions since 1925. He married in Sitka, Alaska, December 15, 1878, Fannie E. Kellogg, and had three daughters, Abby G., Margaret A., and Fannie Louise. He wrote many ar ticles for church papers and for magazines, and also was author of Alaska Days with John Muir, Klondike Clan, Adventures in Alaska, and Kenowan, the Hyda Boy.

HE DIDN’T DIE There is a curious bit of unsolved history suggested by the following ex tract from the minutes of Alpha chapter, dated at Miami University, June 5, 1843: “ Called meeting of the Miami chapter of the Beta Theta Pi. Object: To take into consideration the death of Mr. Mitchell of Cincinnati. On motion, Messrs. Taylor and Stevens were appointed a committee to draft and report by the next meeting resolutions expressive of our feeling.” Three days passed. A s the telegraph had not yet been invented and the telephone was thirty years or more in the future, no one checked up on the reported death, so, on June 8, the report of the special committee was presented and resolutions were unanimously adopted, as follow s: “ Whereas, This Society has learned with deep and unfeigned regret of the death of Thomas G. Mitchell, Esquire, a resident member of the Cincinnati chapter of the Association, therefore, as a slight memento of our feeling upon that occasion, “ R e s o l v e d , That in the decease of Thomas G. Mitchell this chapter feels the Society has lost an ornament which was soon to be acknowledged and admired; his friends are bereaved indeed; the Cincinnati chapter has been deprived of a valuable member, a rare gem of talents; and we have lost a brother. “ R e s o l v e d , That we deeply sympathize with the relatives of Mr. Mitchell and with our Cincinnati brethren upon this the first choice that Providence has seen proper to select from our little band.

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R e s o l v e d , That a copy of these minutes ancl resolutions be forwarded to the Cincinnati chapter. E d w a r d B. S t e v e n s H

enry

aylor

Committee

“ On motion, Chapter adjourned. T

W. M o o r e President”

homas

How the rumor was started and how it reached Alpha chapter has not been handed down to history; neither is there record of the feelings of Brother Mitchell when his family received the memorial on his death. The rumor was “ slightly exaggerated” at least, as the supposed first Beta to die lived until 1877- He was one of the selected group of Cincinnati young men who were associated into a chapter, probably not connected with any educational institution at all, although the friendships may have been cemented in the Cincinnati Law School. The alumni secretary of Ohio University wrote from Athens, Ohio, on August 13, 1826: “ Our records show that Thomas Greene Mitchell grad uated from Ohio University in 1840, but they do not give the name of the degree. He received the M.A. degree in 1845, also from Ohio Univer sity. A fte r graduating from Ohio, Mr. Mitchell entered the law school of Transylvania University at Lexington, Kentucky, receiving the LL.B. from that school. A fter finishing his law course, Mr. Mitchell entered the office of Salmon P. Chase, who was then practicing law in Cincinnati. About 1846 he formed a partnership with his father-in-law, under the firm name of Coffin and Mitchell, which firm was for many years employed by one side or the other in almost every case of importance in Hamilton County. In 1866 he formed a partnership with Charles B. Collier, under the firm name of Mitchell and Collier, and continued the practice of law with that firm, and subsequently alone.” The fraternity catalogue, under his name, includes the words, “ Com manded volunteers for the defense of Cincinnati in 1863, with the rank of general.” The catalogue of 1881, which gives the date of his death as 1877, rather than 1879, as in the catalogue of 1917, includes the same statement. As the materia! for that book was gathered soon after Mitchell’s death, the report of his command of the so-called “ Squirrel Hunters” may be correct, although there is chance for confusion of his name with that of General Ormsby McKnight Mitchell, who was active around Cincinnati when it was. threatened by the Confederates. The catalogue of 1881 also credits the law degree to the Cincinnati Law School, instead of to the one at Lexington, as reported from the Ohio University alumni records. That he was at Lexington is sustained by several letters which are preserved in Beta Letters. He founded the chapter at Transylvania on the Monday preceding February 2, 1842. That was January 31, 1842. The letter announcing that action, addressed to T. Stanley Matthews of the Cincinnati chapter, who, later, became associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, contains a postscript which suggests the lively times college boys of that day sometimes had: “ P.S. W e have had a devil of a scrape here in the Medical School.

— Underwood and Underwood

W IL L IS V A N D E V A N T E R , D e Pauw ’81 Beta Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court; “Beta Father of a Beta Son,” and both sharers in the Baird Fund.

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One of the students (Bob Hunt) got mad at Professor Cross and attacked him with a club. The professor fired a pistol at him but missed. Neither was much h u rt; but I suppose Hunt will be expelled. Cross is popular and the class say that, if he is not expelled, they will forbid him to enter the rooms themselves and that he will get licked whenever he attends a lecture. I don’t know what will come of it.”

BETAS ON THE SUPREME COURT BENCH James M

axw ell

assett,

Colgate ’ 18

Suggested by references made in the fraternity magazine to the service of Betas on the Supreme Court of the United States, I was interested to see how Jmany years are represented on that great tribunal by members of the fraternity, and was surprised to learn that it now reaches the astonish ing total of ninety-nine years. Harlan leads with thirty-four years of service, and it is interesting that only three other justices equaled that length of time,, his great namesake, John Marshall, Joseph Story and Stephen J. Field. A ll are given in the World Almanac as having served thirty-four years. Brewer is next with twenty-one. Van Devanter in 1928 completes eighteen, and the others run: Matthews, eight; Woods, seven; Lamar, six; and Lurton, five. It is reasonable to believe that Brother Van Devanter will fill out at least an even century of Beta service on that high court.

TH E HARRISON HUME LIBRARY Harrison Hume, Dartmouth ’66, died at the Phillips House, Massa chusetts General Hospital, Saturday, June 21, 1924. He was the founder and interested and generous supporter of the Harrison Hume Library in the Dartmouth chapter house, the largest and best selected college fraternity library in the world. He was born in Calais, Maine, September 12, 1840, son of John Hume, a pioneer merchant of Calais and, later, farmer in Robbinstown on Passamaquoddy Bay. The son prepared for college in Washington Academy at East Machias, and was a student there when the Civil W ar broke out. He joined the principal of the school in military service, going to the front in October, 1861, as sergeant-major of the Eleventh Maine Volunteer Infantry. He was in the Peninsular Campaign under McClellan in the spring of 1862, and advanced in rank to second lieutenant after the battle of Williamsburg. A t Fair Oaks, he was promoted on the battle field for gallant conduct to first lieutenant and adjutant of the regiment. While at Harrison’s Landing he was stricken with disease, which incapacitated him from further service, although, twice later, he tried to get back into the army, being rejected for physical disability. A fte r a short stay in Dartmouth he went to the University of Michi gan in October, 1865, graduating from the law school in 1867. A t Michi gan he was a member of the Delta Phi fraternity; but when the Dartmouth chapter of Beta Theta Pi was established in 1889 by the absorption of the Vitruvian, or Sigma Delta Pi, society which he had joined in his Dart-

RICHARD DALE OWEN mouth days, he became a Beta and, until his death, remained earnest and enthusiastic in the service of the fraternity. Returning to Maine he practiced law there for eight years, serving a term in the state legislature, of which for a while he was a speaker protem, and for four years being deputy collector of customs for the port of Cherryfield. He was an unsuccessful candidate for state superintendent of schools. In 1875 he removed to Holyoke, Massachusetts, to practice law, but was persuaded to become superintendent of schools in Lawrence. A fter two years he became general manager of Ivison, Blakeman and Company and when the American Book Company was organized became general manager for New England. He was a devoted member of the Grand Arm y of the Republic, being for three years commander of Gettys burg Post, 191, and prominent in national encampment affairs. In 1890 Dartmouth gave him the honorary degree of master of science. When the thought o f the library was taking shape in his mind he had two ideals prominent before him. One was that no student should grad uate from college without a familiarity with the best literature in his own language; the other that no student should graduate without a good knowl edge of the history of his country. Along these two lines, therefore, the library developed. The generosity of the donor manifested itself on fre quent occasions as packages of the best books came by parcel post to Han over. The bookcases had section after section added to them until the shelves reached the ceiling and new sections were placed in another room in the house. Finally the chapter room was given up to house the splendid collection. With a fine spirit of co-operation on the part of the Dartmouth chap ter, members of the other fraternities and of the general student body are permitted the courtesies of this room which indeed are greatly appre ciated. To Harrison Hume the gratitude of Beta Theta Pi is due. For his own chapter he has done what the officers of the fraternity hope may be done for other chapters or for the fraternity as a great administrative body. The possibilities are limitless. Libraries, scholarships, fellowships, loan funds, improvement funds or prizes should be established. To believe in young men and in the importance of training them is a noble thing. Harrison Hume caught the idea and followed it with splendid results.

RICHARD DALE OWEN The Owen name is highly honored by Indiana Betas. On the campus Owen Hall, erected in 1884 and rebuilt in 1913, is the Bloomington head quarters for the medical school. When first built it was the college office and David Starr Jordan had his office there while he was president of the insti tution. It is a memorial to Richard Dale Owen, whose picture hangs in the college library among those of other famous members of the faculty of ( Indiana University. Richard Dale Owen was born January 6, 1810, at Branfield House, near New Lanark, Scotland. He received his early education under a private tutor and later at the grammar school at old Lanark. He spent three years at Hofwyl, Switzerland, at the Institution of Emanuel Fellenberg. On his return from that school he was present at lectures of Dr. Andrew Ure, at

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the Andersonian Institute. In 1827 he sailed for America with his family and settled in southern Indiana. During President Polk’s administration, at the breaking out of the Mexican War, Dr. Owen obtained a captain’s commission in the Sixteenth Infantry, one of the volunteer regiments, and served during the gi eater part of the war. Following the war he was elected professor of natural science at the Western Military Institute of Kentucky with the rank of major, later being promoted lieutenant colonel. While at this institution, Dr. Owen not only gave instruction in his own department but shared with Colonel B. R. Johnson in the military training of the cadets and, as commandant, was charged with the discipline of the institution and the management of the barracks. For three years he was connected with the literary department of the University of Nashville and evidently completed his medical work there since he was awarded an M.D. degree in 1857. In 1859-60 Dr. Owen made a geological survey of Indiana, being helped by his ------------------------brother, David Dale Owen. As state geologist he collected specimens for his famous cabinet of some 85,000 items that was a source of pride of the University only to be lost in the fire of 1883. I11 1861 Dr. Owen accepted, from Governor Oliver P. Morton, Miami ’46, a lieuten ant colonelcy in the Fifteenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He was placed in command of Camp Morton, a confederate prison camp near Indianapolis, where his kindness to the prisoners during the bitter winter of ’61 was repaid fifty years later when the Confederate veterans caused to be placed in the state capitol a bust of Colonel Owen in his military uniform as a tribute to his courtesy and kind ness. Following his command at Indian apolis, Colonel Owen served in West Virginia in command of a brigade under General A. J. Smith. Later he was transferred to General Franklin’s corps CO L. R IC H A R D O W E N an(^ resjgnec[ in ^63 to accept a call to Indiana University as professor of natural philosophy and chemistry. He served in his chair until 1867 when the title was changed to professor of natural science and chemistry and he resigned in 1879- Wabash voted him an LL.D . in 1871. He was elected president of Purdue University in 1872 to enter upon his duties with a three months’ notice. He was not adapted to the work of organization required and so resigned during the spring of 1874, before the official opening of the new state university which had to begin prior to July, 1874, to comply with the Act of Congress. While connected with Indiana University, Dr. Owen made a survey of the mineral resources of portions of New Mexico and Arizona, at the request of Joshua Howe Watts, Indiana ’57> by whom the account of the exploration was published. Dr. Owen died March 25, 1890, at New Har

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mony, the family home, from the effects of poison accidentally taken. He was initiated at De Pauw about 1859 when he was surveying the state as geologist. He was a member of the famous Owen family that established a communistic settlement at New Harmony, Indiana, in the early twenties of the last century and was an enthusiastic Beta attending many meetings and initiations at Bloomington where he served as a professor for many years.

A BETA KNIGHT A Beta of unusual type was George Homer Billman, Wooster, ’87, Michigan, ’89, for many years one of the fraternity’s most loyal and en thusiastic members. He died suddenly on Tuesday, October 18, 1927, at his home, 2043 East Eighty-third Street, Cleveland, Ohio. He was sixty-four years old, and never had been seriously ill. Death came without warning and was caused by high blood pressure, accord ing to the physician. A fter a year at West Point Military Academy he entered Wooster College, finishing with high honors. Shortly after graduating from the University of Michigan Law School at Ann Arbor, he settled in Cleveland and took up law practice, played a part in politics, took all the degrees in Masonry in both the York and Scottish rites, and was an active and aggressive citizen of the interested type. One thing in his life stood out in bold relief. He was devoted to Beta Theta Pi, never waver ing in his affection for it, ever-seeking to serve it. A s a Beta, George Billman im pressed his personality on many a young man, who was on the point of decision as to the fraternity membership. He enG E O R G E H. B IL L M A N joyed droping into a chapter house dur ing rush week, to meet rushees and talk with them. A t Wooster, Case, Western Reserve, Kenyon, and Denison he was well known. Going to Ohio Wesleyan a few weeks before his death took place his daughter in the university, he and his wife were wel come guests at Theta’s chapter house, where he helped to convince the freshman that Beta Theta Pi was the only Greek he needed to know. He never missed a Beta gathering if it was possible for him to attend. He enjoyed a convention as much as any chapter delegate possibly could. For a quarter of a century, each year in advance of the convention, he wrote fraternity officials to learn of the possible petitions to come up or of other matters of importance, always proffering his help in any way needed. He read the magazine from cover to cover, frequently following such reading by a personal letter to the editor, to some other fraternity official, or to a chapter indicating his deep interest in some topic. Just

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before his death he wrote to tell of his favorable impressions of the change in magazine format and of the pleasure received from the convention minutes. He rejoiced in the house-cleaning of 1927 and in the plan to remove from the fraternity roll all the unworthy. To use the words of a long-time acquaintance in Cleveland, “ I think there never was a more loyal and enthusiastic Beta.” He was a brother of Arthur A. Billman, Kenyon ’96, who, initiated at Wooster in Alpha Lambda, transferred his college en rollment to Kenyon in order to revive Beta Alpha which had become dormant.

A FORTY-YEAR PASTORATE On Sunday, October 2, 1927, in Mexico, Missouri, the home town of Founder Charles Henry Hardin, the Reverend Addison Alexander Wallace, D.D., Westminster ’84, for forty years pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of that city, celebrated the anniversary with special services morn ing and evening. A t the close of the evening service the chairman of the Board of Elders briefly reviewed the progress of the church during the long ministry and friends in the church and in Mexico presented the Reverend and Mrs. Wallace with $3,000 to be used for a trip to the Mediterranean and Holy Land. Mexico has been the only pastorate of Dr. Wallace; who settled there the fall after graduating from McCormick Seminary in Chi cago, and has remained since that time, declining offers to go elsewhere. A native of Independence, Missouri, he was reared and educated in Fulton, Missouri. He is a graduate of Westminster College, a present member of the Board of Trustees of that institution, and chairman of a commission for the establishment of a Presbyterian student center at the University of Missouri. He was one of four Wallaces connected with the Westminster chapter within a dozen years. In his historical review he noted that only seven other pastors who were in the Synod of Missouri in 1887 are still alive, of which small number two are Betas, the Reverend Henry Clay Evans, Westminster ’8i, of Austin, Texas, and the Reverend George Lucius Washburn, Westminster ’84, of New Madrid, Missouri. The changes in the Mexico church were graphically described. “ Forty years ago,” he said, “ we worshipped in the old church, with every service in one room, with oil lamps, two wood stoves. New stoves created a sensation, electric lights were an event, and our new $500 organ marked an epoch. Faith, courage and sacri ficial giving built the new church in 1898,” he said. “ With an original mem bership of but 128, 1,257 persons have joined the church during the forty years, and the present membership is 402.”

AN ADDRESS OF WELCOME (D elivered by General John Coburn, Wabash ’46, member of congress, to the Con vention of the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity, held in Indianapolis, Indiana, Wednesday, A ugust 30, 1871, as reported in the Indianapolis Journal, Thursday, August 31, 1871.)

: On behalf of Epsilon Alumni chapter of the Beta Theta Pi of Indianapolis, I bid you welcome here. W e are glad to see you for the memories and associations you bring, and for the fact that you represent the men who still cultivate and cherish that social literary life which is G entlem en

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285

begun in boyhood and at school. W e are glad to see you as old comÂ panions, friends and brethren always are to meet their comrades and to be able to say to you that the fair city in which we live greets you as those held in high esteem, as laborers in the task of making nobler and better their fellow men.

GEN . J O H N C O B U R N , Wabash â&#x20AC;&#x2122;46 Founder of the W abash chapter. A spirited defense of college fraternities, against ill-supported statements, made with evident feeling on his part, first inspired W illiam Raimond Baird, a guest in his Indianapolis home, with the desire to become a Beta.

While the Capital City is keenly alive to all that adds to the material wealth and prosperity of the state; while its energies seem solely bent on public improvements, building, trading, carrying and manufacturing, it does not forget or neglect the men or the interests connected with the intellectual advancement of society. The institutions of learning, the organization of charities, the associations of the scientific, the temples of religion, all testify

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to the profound respect our people pay to the loftier attributes of human nature. For their progress, their development, they labor, they expend their substance, and they extend the warm hand of good will and friend ship. Here are being laid by the hands of gentle culture the foundations of a nobler metropolis than the states of the Old World can claim. In our time it is not possible for many to devote more than a brief portion o f life to literary pursuits. A s yet but few can gain a subsistence in such avocations, and what is done in that direction must be snatched from the space given to other purposes. Yet he is not without honor and reward who does even this. The few who keep alive their scholarly tastes are amply repaid by such reunions as this. The question of ways and means, the strifes for precedence in business, trade, social life and political power all come in before the cultivation of literary habits and tastes and overrun them. But however this may be, they cannot efface the recollec tions and friendships of the students of other days. They, like those be gotten on the field of danger and in hours of trial, endure and shine brightly through all the clouds o f after years. To the men who in the toils of life can still turn to their earlier studies with delight, who would keep alive in their bosoms the sacred fires kindled by the schoolmasters, who would extend and share with others the blessings of intelligence and refined social life, we offer our warmest welcome. And to the members of this Association, so honorable among the literary societies of the land and so widely useful, we can but repeat the cordial greeting that we are very glad that you have come into our midst.

THE DOLE FAM ILY Jam es

rown,

Cornell ’76

In a recent copy of the New York Herald an article was printed under the heading “ Athletic Families.” The Nine Remarkable Dole Brothers of California.” As seven of the nine are members of Beta Theta Pi, I have edited this article by adding names, class numerals, and a few minor notes, crediting the original writer, Archie Rice of Bayside, with the main part of the interesting text. “ Recently the Tyson brothers at Princeton were named as notable rivals of the famous Poe brothers of Princeton, and these two families have been cited as among the outstanding varsity athletic families of America. There were six Poes ^panning twenty-two years at Princeton and they were gradu ated in the classes from ’84 to ’02, both inclusive. There have been five Tyson brothers at Princeton to span nine years with the classes from ’22, to ’27, and there are three other brothers coming on in preparatory school who are expected to give the Tyson family eight athletic brothers over a span of about fifteen Princeton years. But the Tysons thus far have not rivaled the Poes in the eminence of their athletic achievements and have not been first string varsity men. “ Let me cite an even more notable varsity athletic family than either the Poes or the Tysons. In the classes of 1892 and 1894 at Cornell were two brothers, W alter S. Dole and William H. Dole, who are members of the A l

TH E DOLE FA M ILY

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pha Tau Omega Fraternity. One was a varsity oarsman and member of the crew, the other a varsity track man, a short distance runner. “A t the time these two brothers entered Cornell there was no Stanford University. But the next year that far western university opened and in 1891 their sister, Marion Dole, entered with the class of ’95, and during her four years in college was the best woman athlete and gymnast of her time there. “ The seven younger Dole brothers followed their sister into Stanford University. They spanned a period of sixteen years in the classes from 1899 to 1911. All are members of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. The eldest was Charles Sumner Dole, ’99, one of the charter members of the Stanford chap ter. He is now a lawyer in the Hawaiian Islands, of which his uncle, San ford B. Dole, was President when it was a republic. Charlie was in his time varsity track captain, high jumper, vaulter, hurdler, varsity halfback, and he won third place in the national championships to determine the great est all-round amateur athlete in America; he also was a polo player, and was almost fatally injured in his last game at Honolulu. “ Next was A lfred Rowell Dole, ’03, football player. He is a geologist and engineer jn California. Next came Norman Eliot Dole, ’04, pole vaulter, who in his senior year broke the world’s record and first cleared the bar at the then remarkable height of 12 feet 4 inches. A fter getting his Bachelor of Arts degree he spent a year in advanced work for his E.C. degree, also win ning election to Sigma X i for meritorious work in science. He is superin tendent of a big sugar refinery at San Francisco. “ The next brother was W ilfred Heinrich Dole, ’05, varsity halfback and distance runner. He did not graduate. He has been with the Aloha Lumber Company at Aloha, Washington. He was followed shortly by George Ethelbert Dole, ’07, varsity football player and high jumper, now an insurance broker in Riverside, California, the birthplace of all these nine American college-athlete brothers. N ext on the list was Sanford Ballard Dole, ’09, now a telephone company engineer in San Francisco. “ And finally the biggest and greatest of all the Dole brothers registered, Kenneth Llewellyn Dole, ’ 11. He was a blond giant, the idealization of the old Saxon warrior type. He was varsity football captain, on the varsity crew, and a varsity weight man. In addition he was a fine scholar, winning the golden key of Phi Beta Kappa. He studied medicine at Harvard Uni versity and is now a physician at Redlands, California. “ A ll these Doles were remarkable for their high scholastic records, for their best athletic performance always occurririg in regular contests and in a pinch, and for the fact that none of them smoked or ever partook of any in toxicants ; and yet all of them were unusually popular because of their per sonalities and high class sportsmanship. All were members of the university Y .M .C .A ., carrying out the religious traditions of the family, for among the first missionaries in the Hawaiian Islands were Daniel and Emily (Bal lard) Dole, parents of Sanford Ballard Dole, who became political chief of the islands after the monarchy was overthrown, and grandparents of these nine Dole brothers.”

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THE PRICE HE PAID Lieut. Kenneth MacLeish, Yale, ’18, of the United States Naval Aviation service was killed in action over Schoore, Belgium, on October 14, 1918. He was the son of Andrew and Martha Hilliard MacLeish of Glencoe^ Illinois. He left Yale and Phi Chi chapter in March, 1917, to prepare for aviation service. In a letter to his parents he told of' the ideals which inspired him. It is a remarkable one, which deserves a place in American literature. It reflects the character of this fine Beta boy from Yale: If I find it necessary to make the supreme sacrifice, always remember this— I am so firmly convinced that the ideals I am going to fight for are right

TH E LOUNGE A T Y A L E Looking toward the stage, with the memorial to the W orld W ar dead o f Phi Chi on the right

and splendid ideals that I am happy to be able to give so much for them. I could not have any self-respect, I could not consider myself a man if I saw these ideals defeated when it lies in my power to defend them. “ So I have no fears! I have no regrets; I have only to thank God for such a wonderful opportunity to serve Him and the world. No, if 1 must make the supreme sacrifice I will do it gladly and I will do it honor ably and bravely, as your son should, and the life that I lay down will be my preparation for the grander, finer life that I shall take up. I shall live! “ Y ou must not grieve. I shall be supremely happy— so must you not that I have ‘gone west,’ but that I have bought such a wonderful life at so small a price and paid for it so gladly.”

M A JO R R A N S O M ’S L E T T E R

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TW O N O TABLE ADDRESSES O. N

o r r is

m it h

Wushingt'on-Lee

’29

In the fall of 1927 Alpha Rho chapter, through the gracious courtesy of Dean William C. Smith, of the North Carolina College for Women at Greensboro, received a book of minutes of meetings of the old Rho chapter and manuscripts of two Beta speeches, all three in the handwriting of his father, Samuel Cunningham Smith, ’58. The latter was one of the four original initiates of our chapter in 1856, and also its first president. A t the outbreak of the Civil War, the whole chapter enlisted, and Rho was not reorganized until the fall of 1865, when Mr. Smith, who was my grand-uncle, was elected recorder. The old minute book was used until the end of the first month or so of that year, when it became full, and so he put it away for safe keep ing among his possessions, probably for getting all about it. A fter his death in 1902, or rather, upon the investigation of the family historian, it was found among his effects together with two speeches which were delivered by Uncle Sam, one at an “ In Memoriam” service for the brothers who were killed in the war, and the other at the tenth anniversary of the founding of the chapter. Not long ago I opened up a correspon dence with Dean Smith, suggesting that these Beta papers be transferred to the Washington and Lee chapter. Although they were highly prized by the family, the suggestion for their disposition was accepted with the comment that “ if he SAM UEL C. SMITH were living here on earth my father A picture taken in Lexington, Vir would gladly and affectionately commit to ginia, in January, 1867, by Boude & your keeping the material now trans Miley, photographers. Note the Beta mitted.” The minute book, containing badge on the vest. about 130 pages, and the two manuscripts are aged and brown. W e shall cherish them as priceless possessions. The two speeches follow. First is the memorial address delivered before what was then Rho chapter in the fall of 1865, the manuscript confirming the record that the speaker had been “ the first president of the chapter.” Then comes the decennial address, which is dated Thursday, M ay 14, 1868. It naturally reflects the feeling of the times. The sentence toward the end, “ you have united the two institutions,” recalls the historic fact that Rho at the time was admitting to membership students from the Virginia Military Institute, a short distance away in Lexington. A t the Convention of 1869 it reported ten such members.

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BETA LORE

T H E C H A PEL AT W ASHINGTON AND L E E Showing recumbent statue of Lee and portraits of Washington by Stuart and by Peale.

IN M E M O R IA M ★ ★ ★

Wm. N. Page, Jr., killed at Manassas, July. 21, 1861. Benjamin A. Bradley, killed at Manassas, July 21, 1861. Wm. C. Preston, killed at Manassas, 2nd, August 28, 1862. H. Brown Craig, killed at Cold Harbor, June 2, 1864. Harry Jordan, wounded at Gaines’ Mill, June 1, 1864, died June 16. A. S. Pendleton, killed in “The Valley,” September 29, .1864. ★

★

Our Sainted-Hero-dead ! What need have they of ornate epitaph! Their eulogism is written— it is graven upon their country’s heart, and inked with the indelible red of their own hearts’ blood. What greater praise than that they labored, and suffered— battled and bled and died for country. They were all young. What a wealth of heart-love was wrapped up in them a ll! Tender mothers— loving fathers— sweet and trusting sisters— and yet nearer and dearer ones— felt the pangs of crushing grief and the blightings of a fond hope, when the circling wave of sorrow from the battlefield struck upon their hearts and filled and thrilled them with the sad news of these sons and brothers and dear ones— lost. Such grief is holy— is Heavenly, and we would not offer to quench it. A ye rather would we as brothers pour in our portion of tears and “ weep with them that weep.” They have passed from “ the evil to come.” The helpless sorrow that now wastes us, thank God they never knew, nor ever will. Hope, the bright-winged messenger that

TW O NOTABLE ADDRESSES

293

nestled in our hearts, when thy were still with us, and animated us for a time after their loss— dwells no more in our riven breast— with a “ lost cause,” we have lost our all— and life to us now is only a long endurance. Like the caged bird we beat our pinions against the sides of our prison, and from the effort fall back wasted, hurt and more disheartened— and piteously cry for release. The degradation of our lot they did not, cannot feel. We sorrow for them, not that we could wish them to endure what we do— a thousand times no! But we are selfish in our grief. W e miss them because they are away, and we helplessly sigh for their companionship. “There’s a pang in our breast! but we mention it not, Though the uprising tear, so scalding and hot, Trace its way o’er our cheeks, and fall moistening the sod That covers the grave we love—just less than our God.”

-i'ictuie Dy u.

inorris

aumh

VIRGINIA MOURNING H ER DEAD A memorial on the Virginia Military Institute parade-ground which car ries on its bronze tablet several Beta names.

Our grief is not hopelessly painful. It is mixed with pleasure; it is sweet, because our “ loved and lost” are worthy of our tears— and we feel it— and such grief is holy— it makes us better— it makes us oblivious of the Present— it calls up the Past, and forecasts the “ hereafter.” A halo of glory flashes over the Future and our tear-drops are transformed thereby into a rainbow that spans our gloom. “There’s a pang in our breast! but ’tis soothed, as we think How they stood like men, on the cold river’s brink,— Nor shivered, when plunged ’neath its wild raging foam, For they knew ’twas the way to their own Father’s home.”

Let us then gather up our grief. . Let us embalm in our memories the memories of these we sorrow for. Let us feel that they are still dear to us— that they are our brothers— and that the cause that they fell nobly defending shall never, never, never be forgotten by us, but shall be wreathed round our hearts, and shall perfume our inner— better— heart life and shall be thought of— and dwelt upon together with the memory of our dead as

294

BETA LORE

long as our hearts can be thrilled by the fact of our own intimate connection with both. Thus in remembering our country we shall do all honor to those who died for her, whose memories shall live as long as honor and esteem and patri otism fill a place in the Southern heart. Brethren of the Beta Theta Pi, what an eulogium upon our society the silent mounds of our six brethren speak! Fell in battle! in the front rank— six of “ Nature’s noblemen,” our brethren, whose dust and memories should thereby be doubly dear. Who shall be praised and they not? Who worthy of garlands and they not memorialized? No mausoleum rests above their inurned dust to tell the coming eyes what heroes they were. Their memories may perish with the liberties they died defending. Let it be so, at least for the present, let it be so. But when the day comes, as come it will, when tyranny shall be over thrown, when fanaticism shall have died with, the Puritanic zealots who

1 — Picture by O. Norris Smith

T H E LIVING ROOM AT WASHINGTON AND L E E

follow its lead, when “ honor” shall be rendered “ to whom honor is due,” then and not till then let the pure marble rise over the sacred dust of our hero dead and let their epitaph be written. II.

T H E D E C E N N IA L A D D R E SS

M r. P r e s id e n t a n d B r e t h r e n :

Perhaps the recurrence of this anniversary affects no other participant in it this day as it does myself. W hy? Because it calls up the past. Ten years today since I met and mingled in such scenes and my last experience of that pleasure was right here at Rho’s second anniversary. Ten years! How big with history and events! Ten common years might not impress one so, yet ten common years is a long time, but ten uncommon— wondrous years of changed governments— altered institutions— years of oppression and tyranny, war and blood, years of tears and mourning, when the death wail was borne upon every breeze and the worm, the coffin and the shroud held

TW O NOTABLE ADDRESSES

295

high carnival; when every spot was freedom’s rallying point and every rallying point a sepulchre. Ten years ushered in by high political excitement, then a violated constitution and a ruptured government. Upon the heels of this a patriotic enthusiasm that swelled all over the land in tuneful chorus, as one state after another joined the sisterhood of those already banded to gether for better or for worse. Farther on in the decade and war with red right hand waved his gory ensign over our land and a hundred battlefields answered to the signal and swept the South of her chivalry. The altars of country were smoking with the life blood of ten thousand sons. A ll alike were called to suffer. No, not alike. Some suffered a double portion. Aye, our society, this little brotherhood, was rudely broken in upon and one and another and another ruthlessly torn from its hall. Did Rho shrink from her offering— or offer scantily? Let the graves of her

^Picture by O. Norris Smith

EN TRAN CE TO V.M.I. NO TE “1839” on the right gate-post

Page, Bradley, Preston, Craig, Jordan and Pendleton answer. A fter this in the decade came the action, despondency and gloom. This culminated in the surrender and all was over. And our cause is lost. A s a nation, we are dead— politically dead. As a people, as southerners, we are in immortal youth. Our enjoyments must all be circumscribed now and within ourselves. Hence we come closer together and all our tastes and distastes, likes and dis likes, efforts, aims, interests, are homogeneous and intimate; and therefore more heart and less cunning, calculating, Yankee mind should characterize us. Now is the time for societies like your own to blossom as the rose and Rho should go forward in her high career to elevate, and ennoble and bless all within her influence. Brethren of Beta Theta Pi, you are the guardians I of a sacred trust. Be thoroughly enlisted in the cause. Don’t be half and half. Be Betas out and out. Let it be known by your walk and conversa tion, by your earnestness, your zeal that you are. Move all together, har moniously. You surely have incentives. You are stronger now than ever before. Rely on your strength. Make yourselves felt as a society, morally,

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BETA LORE

socially, intellectually. Let Rho take no second place. Advance her standard high. You have united the two institutions. Keep them united; in union there is strength. Be imbued thoroughly with the principles of this society and there will be no lack of material in both College and Institute anxious to be worked by your hands into a true and earnest membership. Some of you go out into the world at the end of this session to try the real ties of life. There you will miss the fraternal sympathy that has cheered and blessed you through your college life and you will miss too these meetings and often, very often, will you wander back in fancy to these reunions and think over and dwell upon the times of joy spent in Rho’s assemblies and call up these faces that now beam upon you and cheer you on. I will not say, forget not the old mother, you will not, cannot do it. When you come in contact with a cold and heartless world and are jostled back and forth by the busy throng, and become thoroughly sick and tired, weary and worn with the toils and

— Picture by O. Norris Smith

T H E VIRGINIA M ILITA R Y IN ST IT U T E The arrow points to the monument “Virginia Mourning Her Dead.” The statue of “Stonewall” Jackson faces the center of the parade ground.

cares of life, then memory will carry you back over the lapse of years, and fresh and green as an oasis in the desert will be the old college days and your companionships in this old chapter. How delightful that we have the re membrance of these days; how sad we have the remembrance only. “Oh! friends regretted, scenes forever dear, Remembrance hails you with her warmest tear, Drooping she bent o’er pensive Fancy’s urn To trace the hours which never can return.”

ST. LOUIS ALUM NI CLUB DINNER

297

— .Picture by O. Norris Smith

“T H E B A T T L E OF N EW M ARKET” Famous picture in the Jackson Memor ial Hall at V.M.I., showing the faces of the boys who fought in the battle where several Betas were wounded.

T H E ST. LOUIS ALUM NI CLUB DINNER G urdon G. B l a c k

In 1905 the Beta Theta Pi Alumni Club of St. Louis inaugurated the custom of recognizing the achievements and the fraternity loyalty of those members of the club who had attained distinction by dedicating the annual feast to one such who was made the guest of honor and who became also the principal speaker of the evening. The first to be so recognized was that Beta stalwart, the silver-haired, honor-crowned General John W . Noble, a son of old Miami, who became a member of Alpha chapter in 1847 before the famous snow rebellion, and who prized his Beta badge above all the other decorations that were conferred on him in later years. A fter his death in 1912, that badge, which he had worn constantly, was given to the St. Louis Beta Theta Pi Club and is now worn by its president as the insignia of his office.

BETA LORE The guests of Honor from 1905 have been: John W illock Noble, Miami ’51. 1906. David Rowland Francis, Washington ’70. 1907- Ashley Cabell, Washington and Lee ’73. 1908. Shepard Barclay, Virginia ’6g. I 9° 9 - James Britton Gantt,- Virginia ’69. 1910. Fayette Clay Ewing, Mississippi ’85. 1911. Benjamin Hynes Charles, Center ’53. John Johnston, Center ’53.

SNAPSHOT PO RTRAIT OF JOHN W. NOBLE, Miami ’50 Taken at Commencement at Yale 1911

1912. 1913. 1914. 1915. 1916. 1917. 1918. 1919. 1920. 1921. 1922. 1923. 1924. 1925.

Walter Bond Douglas, Westminster ’73. William Metcalf Kinsey, Monmouth ’70. Philip North Moore, Miami ’70. William Edward Jones, Michigan ’76. William Coleman Bitting, Richmond ’77Francis Eugene Nipher, Iowa ’70. No meeting because of the War. No meeting because of the War. The 140 Beta Service Men of St. Louis. John Lane Van Ornum, Wisconsin ’88. Charles Woodson Bates, Westminster ’83. Edward Everett Wall, Missouri ’84. Charles W illys Terry, Missouri ’87. George Rowland Dodson, Missouri ’87.

NOTABLE BETA ENGINEERS 1926. 1927. 1928.

299

Thomas David Miller, Washington ’79. Benjamin Hynes Charles, Jr., Westminster ’85. James Julius Parks, K nox ’72,

A s those previously honored have customarily been present on the occa sion of a new recognition, whenever it has been physically possible, the banquet has been notable for its head table filled with silver grays. Death has made many inroads into the company of honor guests. It will be noted with interest that there is one case of father and son, each bearing the same name.

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A S T . L O U IS B E T A M E N U C A R D

NOTABLE BETA ENGINEERS Peyton Brown W infree, Lehigh ’91, was the engineer in charge in 1904 of the difficult task of laying a pipe line through the Virginia mountains to supply the city of Lynchburg with water, his skill being so great that the city was saved many thousands of dollars in its construction. The chief engineer of the Peace Bridge across the Niagara River be tween Buffalo, New York, and Fort Erie, Ontario, was Edward Pay son Lupfer, Kansas ’95. It was opened for traffic June 1, 1.927. The chief engineer of the Michigan Central railway tunnel under the Detroit River between Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario, con structed at a cost of $9,000,000, was Wilson Sherman Kinnear, Kansas ’84. The chief engineer of the declared-impossible project of leveling up the city of Seattle, Washington, was Reginald Heber Thomson, Hanover ’77, who performed the feat successfully, to the astonishment and applause of the world. The chief engineer of the Keokuk Dam on the Mississippi River where, five times, the “ impossible” was done, was Horace Francis Anthony, Iowa State ’05. In part of the work he was assisted by John Clayton Snyder, Lehigh ’04; Francis Germain Wrightson, Lehigh ’06; and Roy Shackleton, Purdue ’06, as engineers and by Dr. G. Walter Barr, De Pauw ’83, as public

300

BETA LORE

relations man. John Welles Noyes, Dartmouth ’ n , a subordinate helper, was killed during the progress of the work. The chief engineer of the Southern Pacific railway lines for many years was William Hood, Dartmouth ’6y, who died in San Francisco, August 26, 1926. He was called upon to solve the most difficult engineering problems and to his genius are attributed many of the outstanding railroad construc tion achievements of the West. He built the famous Tehachipi loop; the Lucine cutoff, a twenty-seven-mile causeway and trestle across the Great Salt L a k e ; the “ S ” line of the Siskiyou Mountains, which crosses the Sacra mento River eighteen times and passes through sixteen tunnels, one of them 3,000 feet long; and the line which cuts through the Carriso gorge to unite the Imperial Valley with San Diego. In the field of hydraulic engineering H. Birchard Taylor, Pennsylvania ’05, made basic inventions. The design and construction of the 37,500 horse power turbines for the Niagara Falls Power Company, the 55,000 horse power turbines for the Ontario Hydro-Electric Power Company at Niagara

T H E P E A C E B R ID G E B E T W E E N T H E U N IT E D S T A T E S AND CANADA

Falls, and later the 70,000 horsepower turbines for the Niagara Falls Power Company, the highest-power prime movers in the world, were undertaken under his direction.

FIVE LETTERS In Curtis Hall, the chapter house o f the Denison chapter at Granville, Ohio, is a frame containing five autograph letters. These were written by the men who have been honored with the presidency of Beta Theta Pi. The letters need no comment. I. Chicago, Illinois March 19, 1922 B

roth ers

lph a

t a

This date is the forty-second anniversary of my initiation into Beta Theta Pi. I mark it by sending for the archives of your chapter and mine a set of letters absolutely unique. Since 1897, when the present Constitution of the Fraternity was adopted there have been five presidents o f Beta Theta Pi. To me, as the present incumbent of the highest office in the gift of the Fraternity, each of my predecessors has addressed an autograph letter in which some mention is made of Alpha Eta in its rela

FIVE LETTERS

301

tion to Beta Theta Pi. Our chapter was established when Knox chapter was the Presiding Chapter. It was formally installed by the Ohio W es leyan chapter. In days of opposition a number of its members, leaving Denison, joined the Wooster chapter. So the letters from Sisson, of Knox, Robb, of Ohio Wesleyan, and Hanna, of Wooster, have special interest. Note, too, that Hamilton graduated from Northwestern in 1879, the year when Alpha Eta had its new birth after the darkness of sub-rosa days. Yours in — kai— F r a n c i s W . S h e p a r d s o n , Alpha Eta ’82 President of the Fraternity

T H E D IN IN G H A L L A T D E N IS O N The octagonal table in the bay serves as the head table on banquet occasions and for the seating of special Sunday guests. The shepherd’s crook of the chapter coat of arms is utilized in the lighting fixtures.

II. 4000 Sheridan Road Chicago, Illinois February 12, 1922 Francis W . Shepardson President of Beta Theta P i D ear S h

I have made it a rule always to respond to the call of the Fraternity, and I do not know any chapter that has a better right to make that call than Alpha Eta. The man who heeds the precepts of Wooglin never need fear that he will go wrong. Yours in — kai— W . A. H a m i l t o n , Rho ’79 President of Beta Theta Pi, 1897-1900; 1906-1912

302

BETA LORE III. Springfield, Illinois March 7, 1922

_ Francis W. Shepardson President of Beta Theta P i My D ear F ran k :

It has been several years now since I was active in the general work of Beta Theta Pi, but the Fraternity means as much to me now, in the forty-fourth year of my membership, as at any time in the past. The memories are sweet, from the time of the boyhood conferences you and I had in the seventies and eighties in the old Buckeye State, down through the strenuous days of expansion and organization even to now. Alpha Eta has had an honored share in all of the Fraternity’s achievements and serv ices, from the sub-rosa days on, both in the ideal chapter life and spirit developed there, and in the great services to the general Fraternity, ren dered by Seaman, Tunison, Flory and the honored careers of scores of others, but especially in the remarkable Fraternity record of the man whom all Betas know as “ Shep.” A s ever in.— kai— J . C a l H a n n a , Alpha Lambda ’81 President, Beta Theta Pi, 1900-1903 IV. February 16, 1922 New York Francis W~ Shepardson President of Beta Theta P i My D e a r S h ep ard so n :

A fter nearly half a century of consideration I still believe that Beta Theta Pi's middle name is Theta, but it is not without significance that the letters Alpha and Eta occur with twice the average frequency in BYJTa ©Y)TQ! l i t .

Yours ever in —-kai— W i l l l i s O. R o b b , Theta ’79 President of Beta Theta Pi, 1903-1906 V. One Hundred Forty Broadway March 8, 1922 New York Francis W . Shepardson President of Beta Theta P i Chicago, Illinois D

ear

h epardson

I have thought of you many times recently, wondering how you and the world were using each other, so your recent note was a very welcome visitor to which I am delighted to respond. I almost envy you the enjoy ment and response I know you have as president of the Fraternity these

FIVE LETTERS

303

days, recalling as I do such happy days of service which were so long my own. The impress you have made upon American college life has been a worth-while undertaking, reflecting credit upon yourself, Alpha Eta chap ter and Beta Theta Pi. A s the years go by and my own experience broadens, my sentiment for our Fraternity increases, because of my increasing realiza tion of the importance of such idealism in our lives. In the perspective of time it looms ever large, and I realize now how great an influence all its teachings have had on my own life and thought and feeling. With sincere wishes for the long continuance of your quickening influence to ward truer sentiment and higher ideals, I am Yours sincerely in — kai— F r a n c i s H. S i s s o n , X i ’92 President of Beta Theta Pi, 1912-1917

T H E Y A L E B E T A H O U SE

Chapter X I — Wooglinana

CHALLENGE B

r c h ib a l d

Jam eso n ,

Minnesota

’24

I am the voice of Wooglin out of the years long flown Spilling my hopes and wishes to hearts that I hold my own, Spawn’d of a Dragon’s teeth when the mighty seed was sown: Sons, you are spray’d from stars to the East and the South and the West Each with a wreath on his forehead, each with a light in his breast, Resolute, stark, relentless, crown’d with the Dragon’s crest. Sons, you are sw ift and fearless, strong as the sea is strong, Eager, and stripp’d for battle, grim when the trail is long, Seeing the gold from the alloy in the mazes of right and wrong; Y et gentle as dew in the eve when lips that you love are near, Kind as the rain in springtime, soft as a sweetheart’s tear, Knowing the love of a woman is dearer than life is dear. Some of the brood are fighters, some are the hunters of game; W alking the ways of silence, treading the halls of fame, Builders, benders, breakers, clean in the diamond flame; And some of my sons are dreamers, poets of dust and rain, Singers of songs of youth, spenders of golden grain— And these breathe the air of rapture and drink the cup of pain;

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BEFORE WOOGLIN AND HIS “DORG”

305

And some are the misfits, the failures, the doers of wrong, and the fools: Them has the world renounc’d, and turn’d from its stiff-aisl’d schools; Yet proud am I of the spirit that lives by its self made rules! Jealous my heart of the soul who follows the running years Where the steps of others are timid, beleaguer’d by palid fears, Who throws to the hills his laughter with the rest of the world in tears! And you who ken of the Letters, the speech of the silent stars, .Guard well the dreams you cherish, shun but the deed that mars, For loathe I the one who has fallen showing of shameful scars! Hearts that have tasted the Cup, think at the dawn of night O f a treasure held in your minds, a Gem that is endless light, Know in the deepest darkness that Beta’s stars are bright. I am the voice of Wooglin: I did the harvest reap: 0 full-arm’d men and stalwart, a thousand gifts I heap, A World for each to vanquish, a Faith for each to keep!

BEFORE WOOGLIN AND HIS “ DORG” An article under this title was published in the New Y ork Evening Post of March, 1908, the communication being dated, Cornell University, March 20, and being signed J. M. H. These were the initials of James Morgan Hart, a member of Alpha Delta Phi and of Phi Beta Kappa, a philologist of high rank, emeritus professor of English language and litera ture in Cornell from 1907. There is something really delightfully humorous in the thought of a cloistered philologist “ falling for” a bit of fake “ dorg” story and poring over his books to trace it back to “ sources.” Here is the article: S i r : In your issue of March 17 you print an account o f the Beta Theta P i from which I quote the following :

“ The N ew Y o rk Beta Theta P i Club is the outgrowth o f the ‘Kaidorg Pack,’ organized several years ago. Saturday night’s banquet will not be called a ‘dinner’ by those who sit down but a ‘dorg,’ according to Beta custom. College tradition has it that Father Wooglin, the patron saint o f the fraternity, was always accompanied upon his travels by a remarkable dog. Whenever W ooglin became hungry, he slew the dog, taking care, however, to save all the bones. B efore retiring, these were carefully placed together, and the next morning the dog gambolled on in advance of his master. Hence the Beta term ‘dorg’ for fraternity dinners.”

“ Without intending any disrespect to college tradition or to Father Wooglin, may I remark that this dog story is a stray bit of mythological folklore which antedates our customs by many centuries. Thus we may read in the younger Edda, in the Gylfaginning, chapter 44, Anderson’s trans lation : “ ‘The beginning of this adventure is that Oku-Thor went on a journey with his goats and chariot, and with him went the ass who is called Loke. In the evening they came to a bonde (peasant) and got there lodgings for the night. In the evening Thor took his goats and killed them both, where

3 °6

BETA LORE

upon he had them flayed and borne into a kettle. When the flesh was boiled Thor and his companion sat down to supper. Thor invited the bonde, his wife, and their children, a son by name Thalve and a daughter by name Roskva, to eat with them. Then Thor laid the goat-skins away from the fireplace, and requested the bonde and his household to cast the bones onto the skins. Thalfe, the bonde’s son, had the thigh of one of the goats which he broke asunder with his knife, in order to get at the marrow. Thor remained there over night. In the morning, just before daybreak, he arose, dressed himself, took the hammer, Mjolner, lifted it and hallowed the goat-skins. Then the goats arose, but one of them limped on one of its hind legs. When Thor saw this he said that either the bonde or one of his folk had not dealt skillfully with the goat’s bones, for he noticed that the thigh was broken. It is not necessary to dwell on this part of the story. A ll can understand how frightened the bonde became when he saw that Thor let his brows fall down over his eyes. When he saw his eyes

he thought he must fall down at sight of them alone. Thor took hold of his hammer so hard that his knuckles grew white. As might be expected the bonde and all of his household cried aloud and sued for peace, offering him as an atonement all that they possessed. When he saw their fear, his wrath left him. He was appeased and took as a ransom the bonde’s children Thalve and Roskva. They became his servants, and have always accompa nied him since that time.’ “ A charming story, told most graphically. One can see Thor’s eye brows and knuckles. Students of Icelandic will recognize the hammer and the asmegin. And truly Thor’s goats have indeed more ‘go’ than Father W ooglin’s ‘dorg.’ Y et even when Snorre jotted down his compila tion, early in the thirteenth century, the theme of the resuscitated animals must have been hoary with antiquity. Thus in Nennius’s Historia Brittanum, 332, we may read of the visit of King Benli to Saint Germanus, and how the saint, having no cattle except one cow and her calf, ordered the calf to be killed, dressed, and set down before his guest. Also how the saint ordered his servants not to break a bone of the calf. The next morning it was found ‘alive, uninjured, and standing by its mother.

AN ALPH A NU DOG LEGEND

307

“ The origin of the Historia is still obscure. Zimmer is disposed to assign it to the ninth century at the latest; the materials, however, are still earlier. Schulz, in his note to 632, remarks that a like miracle is ascribed to the Irish Saint Finger and adds that Gunn reports the Nennius story to be still current in Wales. A t all events, Thor’s goats and Germanus’s calf are a bit of genuine mythological folk-lore which we need not to be surprised to run across at any time and in any language.”

AN ALPH A NU DOG LEGEND E

d w in

W . B l is s ,

Kansas

’04

Schneick, the Beta dog, died a horrible death the first week o f vacation, the result o f eating some strychnine which had been placed around to kill the mice. — C

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fro m

a n sa s

n iv e r s it y

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Many, many years ago there lived an old gray-haired man whose life was one great mass of regrets. He had had a kind and loving heart in his youth, and his sentiments of love and tenderness for his fellow-men were so lofty and noble that he was continually misunderstood. Friends he had none; his hopes were things of the past and his whole life was shattered. So, one day, the old man, embittered by disappointments, left

his home and, all alone, trudged out into the strange world hoping to find that consolation in nature which had been denied him by his fellow-men. But when he had traveled a great way he came to a vast forest and lay down to rest. The last rays of the sun were shining in, aslant, making a path of golden light along the stems and branches in its range, which, even as he looked, began to die away, yielding gently to the night that came creeping on. It was so very, very quiet that the soft moss about the trunks of the trees seemed to be the children of silence. The old man was afraid, but he was so foot-sore and weary that he could take not another step; and as he lay down to rest, the great solemn night— unwinking and calm— terrified him.

BETA LORE

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The soft moon and the gentle wind watched. The very stars—rthe eyes of Darkness— watched him, and he was fain to rise but could not. And as he lay there a mighty figure seemed to step from the heavens and to move towards him. A s it drew nearer his fear subsided and the tumultuous beating of his heart was stilled. Nearer and nearer it came— with mighty strides covering miles of ether— until it towered over the old man, and yet he was not afraid. Looking up, he saw the figure to be that of a giant in hunting garb with a great hunting horn suspended by a cord from his neck. Inquiringly the old man looked and waited for the hunter to reveal his identity. In a voice like a clap of thunder the apparition spoke: “ I am Orion, sent by the Master of the Heavens to protect you and yours from the terrors that beset you”— and the old man was very glad “ But,” the hunter continued, “the hunt calls me and I cannot always be with you, so I give you this dog to be your constant guard, companion and friend. Though men may scoff, yet will he never desert you. Though evil may compass you about, yet shall this dog protect you.” Then, turning to the dog, he said, “ Schneick, guard thou Wooglin and his brothers till I call you.” And the dog did not leap and frisk about, .but gravely went up to Wooglin and put his cold muzzle in the old man’s hand, and Wooglin mar veled greatly at the words of Orion— “ Guard thou Wooglin and his brothers” ■ — for kin he had none. And while he was still reflecting on this strange thing he fell asleep— and the dog, with his beautiful eyes fixed on his master’s face, watched. In the morning Wooglin was awakened by voices and, listening, he heard the conversation of young men, and he joined them and became the guardian of their fraternity. And many years after the old man went away to prepare a home for Betas— for many were leaving the world and were unhappy at being separated from their brothers— and as he went away he bade the dog guard his fraternity as zealously as he had guarded him. The dog zealously kept the trust reposed in him until one day Orion called, and he went back to his home in the heavens. And if you will look carefully at the constellation of Orion, you will see two new bright stars intently, lovingly, follow you with their light; and you know that it is the dear old dog. His has been the noble type of life— giving himself over completely to the guarding of the race of Beta Theta Pi, and he has done much more, I fear, than do most of us who dabble in our little echoes of life.

A LEGEND OF WOOGLIN R

obert

r a n c is

llen

Boston

’05

There is a legend of the days long past When those now gone unto their last long rest Stood where we are now standing, with their feet Just pressing on the way of life, which, vast And long stretched out toward the glowing West Where life’s delights with heaven’s raptures meet. O ft is the tale told in the pure light cast By Beta stars, or Beta’s precious gem,

A LEGEND OF WOOGLIN That one bright stone, that priceless diadem, That gleams with passing luster. Then, when pressed, Some older member of the brotherhood, Stirred up into a reminiscent mood, May tell the legend, which I now repeat, O f our first Chapter, and how unto them Great Wooglin came, and to them patron stood. They met, those first of Betas, ’neath an oak In a grim forest, and they found a bond Stronger than love, in their fraternal tie ; A secret bond, unknown to other folk, Which held them in a friendship that, beyond

L O O K IN G F O R A N H O N E S T M A N

The sunset, still unites them in the sky To them on earth. As once these met and spoke O f friendship, from the shadow of the tree , A deep voice sounded, and they turned, to see An old man, that a huge black volume conned, Intoning, in a voice now high, now low, His reading. They drew near. But he, as though He knew their coming, held his hand on high And closed his book, and spoke: “ Come not to me Till I have told my history of woe. “ Once I was young— ye might not dream it now— And I was happy, and my fond heart throbbed W ith great ambitions. Then my dearest friend,

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BETA LORE O r so he styled himself, betrayed me. How Such falseness may be, I know not. I sobbed A t first that all my joy had such an end; And then, in bitter grief, I vowed a vow Never to look again upon man’s face. So I sought out this far-off lonely place, And I have lived here, since my soul was robbed O f faith in man. But in these later years Through my much reading of the mighty seers O f other ages, I have learned to lend A kindlier spirit to my woeful case— That old fate far less bitter now appears.“ But I have watched ye oft, and it would seem That in your friendship is a bond of truth Which I have sought in vain. And I would ask That ye fulfil for me my early dream— Admit me to your number. Though my youth Be past, my spirit hath not found the mask O f age as hath my face and form. Yea, and I deem That I might teach ye of what I have found O f secret lore and mysteries profound In my long study of the words of sooth O f ancient masters. Though I be not young, My heart is young.” Thus with a wily tongue The old man spoke, and it had been a task T o say him nay, a spell so deep around Their listening souls his silver speech had flung. So they admitted him unto their band, And unto many secret gatherings Under the shadow of the silent night He called them, and he taught them lessons grand O f truth, and faith, and other mighty things W hich men should heed. And he taught them aright To read the stars-, and how with woven hand To symbolize their bond; and a white stone Which flamed with its own luminence alone He made the sign which such deep meaning brings T o Beta hearts. So for a certain time He taught them, and they loved him, as the prime And greatest of all seers. But one sad night They came, and found him lying still and prone; But, ah, his face with glory was sublime! Then as they gathered round him, weeping sore, One spied within his hand a parchment roll, Bound with twin ribands of pale harmony. They opened, and they read the word it bore;— This was the message written on the scroll.

A LEGEND OF WOOGLIN “ As when an arrow leaps from mystery Across a lighted place, and then, before It is well seen, in darkness vanishes— So is our life. That brief time furnishes No satisfaction to the thoughtful soul. L ife is an arrow-flight, but an infinite And mighty vista, down which arrows flit, The soul’s determined path— Eternity. Keep pure the emblems of your faithfulness And in due time ye shall attain to it. “ I die n ot; for my life I leave to you And those who shall succeed unto your name.

T H E W O O G L IN C L U B H O U S E Built in 1884 by alumni of Beta Theta Pi this clubhouse on Lake Chautauqua was the scene of eight conventions of the fraternity. Financial difficulties forced its sale. Some years later it was destroyed by fire.

For they shall be a multitude, like grass In number, yet of all men but a few. Unto these, then, ye shall hand down your fam e; That, as into the mystery ye pass, There shall be left of Betas good and true To keep our fires of friendship burning high. And from my station in the heavens, I W ill watch and guide them.” In the fitful flame O f a great torch they read it. When ’twas read They turned to look again upon their dead— And lo, a miracle had come to pass! He was not there; but in the northern sky A new star blazing showed his place instead.

312

BETA LORE So now, the legend says, from that bright star Wooglin looks down upon our lives below, And when our lives are pleasing in his sight He smiles upon us from the heavens afar His white star gleaming with a richer glow ; But when we please him not, that shining light Fades from his face, and lines of sorrow mar His glory. So we make to him this prayer:— “ Thou radiant spirit of the voiceless air, Give u n t o Us o f a ll t h a t t h o u d o s t k n o w Some little part. This prayer we pray to' thee, O father Wooglin, clothed in sanctity! Grant to surround and guard us with thy might; That we may well our mystic symbols bear And keep our souls from shame and error free!”

LEGENDS OF WOOGLIN I.

A LEGEND

Thirty-four years ago an old man was often seen in the vicinity of a beautiful town situated in Butler County, Ohio. His life being almost that of a hermit and his home in a deep glen near the village, the citizens gradu ally learned to call him the Wooer of the glen, which in time was shortened to Wooglin, and thus he was known far and near. Eight students of the university, situated in the village, were in the habit of rambling over the hills in company, and one day when near old Wooglin’s glen, resolved to join themselves together for mutual aid, for application in study, and also determined to have implicit confidence in each other. They were all destined to become lawyers and like lawyers argued the pros and cons with a right good will, so much so, indeed, that they were all convinced of the advantages of such an association; and to their surprise

G R O U N D F L O O R P L A N O F W O O G L IN C L U B

LEGENDS OF W OOGLIN

313

had convinced one, whose presence was unknown to them. For from with in a neighboring thicket, Wooglin stepped forth and thus addressed them : “ Young men, I had once lost all faith in man; my brightest hopes had been overthrown; and my dearest idols torn from my arms by his treachery. Solitude and Nature was my refuge and thence have I fled. But your young voices reached me in yonder grove, and struck by their eagerness, I paused and listened; heard what an elysium was marked out in your dreams of future companionship; and have, once more, thrown myself into the so ciety of man, in order to warn you of what you may expect. But let me say at the first, that as I am admitted to your plans under such peculiar circumstances, I shall consider myself a self-appointed guardian of your welfare, and that of those with whom you may choose to associate your selves, If you follow out the proposed plans, I will be pleased; if you do not, our allegiance must be broken.” These words being highly approved by his auditors, he went on speak-

W O O G L IN -O N -C H A U T A U Q U A S E C O N D -F L O O R P L A N

ing and gave a short history of his life, warning them to take heed and profit by his loss. His newly found friends were eager to hear more from him, but, as it was fast growing dark, he bade them adieu, telling them to meet him at his cabin in one week. That interval of time having passed found them expectantly standing at the door awaiting his coming. Presently his step was heard, and throwing open the door, he cordially invited them to enter where none but himself had ever been. Many curiosities large and small met their eyes; but their attention was turned from all to a large bronze statue in the center of the room. It represented a noble species of the canine race and was in an attitude of watchfulness apparently guarding Wooglin and his treasures; the only objection they saw to mar its perfection was its ta il; instead of a fine, bushy, caudal appendage, nothing but a mere stump was seen. They wondered, but said nothing. On going nearer they saw a collar on which was this inscription, “ Ama me, ama Dorgum meum.” What shall we call this wonderful dog? they cried in astonishment. “ Wooglin’s silent bob-tailed dog” was his answer, “ and,” continued he, “ what you trust to him

BETA LORE

will never be revealed. But let us to our business.” Saying this he stepped up to the statue and pressing hard upon the stub of a tail, a click was heard, and a small door seen to open in the side of the animal. From this he took papers which he said were to regulate their future proceedings. H aving read these, he gave them to them to sign and then returned them to their mysterious hiding-place. Another turn brought to light a document containing a mutual agreement of their conditions; he as their guardian and benefactor, they as his pupils, followers and friends. This being mutually signed was likewise restored to its place. What next? thought they. But Wooglin soon put their doubts to flight. Smiling, he thus addressed them, “ ‘A ll work and no play makes Jack a dull boy;’ if they would maintain their well-begun cause, they must mingle business with pleasure; we have had business, let us now have pleasure.” Again he seized that bob-tail, and instead of pushing, he pulled, but pulled too hard, for out it came and down went Wooglin to the floor. But he fell not alone, for a perfect torrent of pea-nuts, almonds, hazel- and cream-nuts poured forth from that magic door, accompanied by Bologna sausage and confections of all sorts; and last of all a huge cake rolled up against the orifice seeming to entreat its speedy removal from dog to man, and you may rest assured that it was removed. Wooglin was soon on his feet and telling the boys to pitch in, began to retail his dog. Here we will leave them with a short appendix. Whenever Wooglin was offended after this, they only had to propose the pulling of his dog’s tail, in order to restore him to a humor which cast his wrath far into the shade. That they were successful in their under takings is evidently proved by Wooglin’s never having returned to his former lif e ; and instead of eight, about two and a half thousand now gather round old W ooglin’s dog and eagerly await the pulling of his tail. But let them bear in mind the advice and example of their patron, “ Business before pleasure,” or, in other words, “ Push before you pull.” N o t e : This legend was written by W illiam Alonzo Stanton, Hanover ’75, and was read at a chapter meeting in 1873. It was printed in Beta Theta Pi, Volum e I, No. 11, November 1, 1873, page 69, and an editorial note, accompanying this tale, states: “ Be it understood that this is not the authorized ‘Legend of W ooglin.’ That has been published by the fraternity; and although its distinguished author was prevented, by professional duties, from going into the historical aspect of the subject, it alone remains authoritative. W e would say, indeed, that as far as Brother Stanton has gone into the history, his facts are substantially correct. More thorough investigation has shown, however, that much greater antiquity must be assigned to this legend, our patron being a Greek patriot, who, after the fatal day of Delium, led a retired life in the vale o f the Ilissus, near Athens, and from his life of seclusion being called Angkeomnester. It is hoped that further investigation will so far remove the cloud o f mystery in which the subject is involved as to enable us at no distant day to have a complete and authoritative legend.”

II.

T H E T A L E O F B A N G O L A -A R O -S O N D A N G .

When chaos reached its end, and among the good things that arose by the decree of the Almighty, came man, a fitting abode for the latter was found. W ith its mountain or two above the waters, land was gradually laid bare for the first recipients of fraternal instincts. A suitable place was offered in a spot now generally conceded by scientists, after a careful survey of our ocean bottoms, to have been the Philippine islands. Here, among the tropical palms, on a green-sward, bathed by a glisten

LEGENDS OF WOOGLIN

3i 5

ing tepid ocean, was the luxuriant home of the first organizer of Brother hood. By some stray chance his name and description still exist. He was black of hair, bronze of skin. He wore no clothes and lived at first on fruits, seeds and brachiopods. The desire for flesh had not yet come upon him, and his manners, especially table manners, can be described as “ easy.” His desire for a man companion led him to cultivate the respect of animals, but for the fowl of the air he had no regard, neither for the fish of the sea, because he had advanced beyond the stage of his evolution wherein his companionable instincts for these were aroused. His element having become land, he preferred the inhabitants of the land. Now common among these was the jackal, the wise jackal, who readily made friends and ate and slept with this man, whose name is recorded as “ Oh-go-along,” which tradition says was given him by the mimicking jackals. In due time and manner a help-meet was found who was called “ Whogo-along.” In due time a child was born to them, a son whom they promptly and naturally named “ Woo-go-along.” Here for the first time the father knew that the companion of his intense longings had come, a son and yet a brother man. Almost before the child could talk plainly a plan of uni- ( versal brotherhood had formed itself in the man’s mind, and instruction of the child began. Time passed. The father died. The child now an aged man, seized with the desire of fraternal life, organized a fraternity of all the men then on the island. As nearly as possible names were chosen for the officers as approached his own, and philologists strengthen the his tory of this narrative by citing a supposed leader of a descendant fraternal tribe still extant, whose customs in many particulars resemble the ancient order. Here the name “ Wooglin” and “ Woo-go-along” strongly resemble each other. Stronger yet is the ceremony of the dog feast, which to this day is held with great pomp both by the present-day inhabitants of the island and in the far-off country of Wooglin. Beginning with the feast of the jackal, this wild beast was supplanted by the domesticated jackal. It is strange, however, its present Visayan and somewhat altered name “ Bangola-aro-Sonjackal, which still prevail in the Philippine Islands were not preserved in the transmission. However it is an office which the Beta Phi chapter of Beta proposes to restore, with all its ancient glory the missing office, giving it, however, its present Visayan and somewhat altered name “ Bangola-aro-Sondang,” which means “ Priest of the Dog-Knife.” N o t e : A t the time this title was conferred on Brother Arthur F . Hewitt o f the Colorado Mines chapter, in connection with which -the above tale was told, a curiously adorned knife and fork were presented to him as the “working tools o f his profession.” The knife has a long blade with a silver image of a dachshund upon it. The handle bears the badge of the Crucible Club surmounting an entwined serpent. “A s the knife prepares the food for the fork, which carries it to the mouth, so did the Crucible Club, represented by the knife, prepare its members to be absorbed into and add susten ance to Beta Theta Pi by Beta Phi, symbolized by the fork. The serpents symbolize the secrecy “of the two branches now happily one yet historically preserved as emblematic designs.”

III. T H E G O L D E N -H A IR E D W O O G L IN A Many hundred years ago, perhaps when Thyestes held the royal scepter of Greece, there lived in Boeotia a golden-haired little Grecian maiden named

3*6

BETA LORE

Wooglina. Together she and her gray-bearded father daily led their flocks to the banks of Asopus, where rippling waters whispered melody, and leafy branches rustled music. Day by day, as Wooglina and her father sat on rustic seats or reclined on grassy mounds, this wise patriarch of the forest told the little girl the story of his youthful longings, his ambitions, his successes, his disappoint ments. He retold again and again the story of his soldier’s life in field and camp. Each day, as father and child returned to their thatched roof, he kissed more lovingly his old Grecian shield which so many times had warded off fierce barbarian javelins. To the trusting Boeotian girl this shield grew to be a symbol of protecting care, and when one peaceful summer evening her father died and left her alone in the world, she clung with tenderest faith to the deep-dented heritage. The period o f mourning Wooglina spent in carving, with rude instru ments, on the reverse side of this shield, the well-remembered principles of her dead father, principles deep in meaning, which explained the desires and ambitions of his youth, the bravery and sacrifice of his soldier’s life, the peace and kindness of his old age. B y and by a lover wandered along, as lovers always will, and claimed this woodland maiden for his bride. Here in the forest, husband and wife quietly spent their lives, reliving each day the shepherd life which father and daughter had lived in simple-hearted happiness. But here this history ceases, and even wavering tradition whispers not their fate. Year after year, century after century, the mountain streamlets trickled from their Grecian soil, and Grecian moon-light transfused the plain. But now no one cared for that forgotten shield which once was laden with such deep sentiment. In that little valley it lay alone, and unsheltered from the ravages of the elements, encrusted with the rust of time. To the spirit of antiquarianism we owe its resurrection. A little more than a half-century ago three earnest American students, journeying in that secluded valley, discovered this ancient relic half hidden in the sand. Curi osity and scholarship led to the tedious translation of the characters which Wooglina had patiently inscribed. The Greek words, laden with such deep sentiment, so profoundly surprised these American students that they re solved to keep the shield as an outward expression of the principles it ex pressed. On their return to their own country, these companions, now bound by close fraternal ties, resolved that these sentiments on that Grecian shield should be entrusted to a small company of students in the leading Amer ican colleges and universities. For half a century and more this movement has gone forward. The principles have found their way into more than eighty institutions of learning, and 33,000 students in the bonds of Beta Theta Pi have rendered thanks to the goldenhaired Wooglina of Boeotia, whose industry and devotion tran scribed truths which the dragon of the fraternity now zealously guards. N o t e : A tale discovered in the archives of the Indiana University chapter, the Pi o f Beta Theta Pi, with no indication of its source or authorship.

Chapter X I I — Fraternity F un

BANQUETS AND REUNIONS

A C H IC A G O A L U M N I C O N C E IT

A t the largely attended Convention of 1920 at Lake Geneva, W is consin, District Chief William Mason Springer, Northwestern ’09, had gen eral charge of a smoker whose program was arranged by his fellow chiefs who were present. Incidentally he wore the Beta pin which originally be longed to his uncle, William McKendree Springer, Indiana ’58, who was the founder in 1856 of the Sigma chapter at Illinois College, Jacksonville, Illinois. The chiefs mentioned in the following song, which Chief Springer sang, were Morris R. Ebersole, Cincinnati ’98; Clarence G. Campbell, Bos ton ’05 ; H. Sheridan Baketel, Dartmouth ’95 ; John A. Blair, Wabash ’93 ; S. Raymond Thornburg, Ohio Wesleyan ’15; William L. Graves, Ohio State ’93; Carter L. Wilson, Lehigh ’07; Dexter J. Tight, Denison ’ 12; ’io ; Stratford L. Morton, Washington ’10; Clarence I. Spellman, Kansas ’95 ; John E. Mitchell, Colorado ’04; J. Hart Willis, University of Washington ’95; and Charles E. McCulloch, Ohio Wesleyan ’02. The smoker attracted a crowd which filled the auditorium. The cur tain raiser was a skit or two by the Beloit boys. It made a big hit, par ticularly the Bolsheviki quartette, and the enthusiasm over it was so great that the District Chiefs began to grow restless for their own introduction which came in a song chorus. Their show was a clever take off of a chap ter meeting on the occasion of a rather unexpected visit from the District Chief. The reports of all officers showed gratifying progress, a gain in scholarship ranking from No. 21 at the bottom of the list to No. 19 being an occasion for much rejoicing. This advance was partly explained by reason of the demise of one contending organization there being only 20 instead of 21 as formerly. Each officer, wishing to do the proper courtesy, spoke to the District Chief calling attention to some favorable item or other, 317

3 x8

BETA LORE

but none of them appeared familiar with the Chief’s name, Springer, and many attempts to recall it brought laughter, Stringer, Swinger, Sprinkler and the like until Johnny Blair with Brother Stinker nearly broke up the meeting and the audience as well by his essay at getting it right. The Chief’s song ran like th is: O

p e n in g

S ong

1 Here’s Morris Ebersole, a wise old guy, H e’s got the stuff that makes ’em do or die, H e’s running this convention and without a doubt If you try to start a rough house he will put you out. Chorus. The District The District The District Whene’er he

Chief, just listen to our chatter, Chief, he’s a clever lad, Chief, the difficulties scatter, makes a visit to the undergrad. 2

Here’s Brother Campbell, from N ’Yark, By Gosh! Y o u ’d know he came from there just by his cute mustache. He’s chief of District Five and I understand His chapters think that he’s the best chief in the land. Chorus.

3 Now here we have a chief that they call Baketel He goes to see his chapters and he gives u s ----— Although he’s dignified and his hair is white, H e’s as young as any Beta in this hall tonight. Chorus.

4 Now here’s Doctor Blair from the Quaker tow n; They say when he’s at home he wears a preacher’s gow n; But if you get to know him you will soon find out H e’s a very loyal Beta and a darn good scout. Chorus. 5 Here’s Pinkie Thornburg, our shining light. He doesn’t know so awful much, but still he’s bright. He has District Nine and it’s my belief, Though he’s living in Chicago, he’s a darn good chief. Chorus.

BANQUETS AND REUNIONS

6 I will now introduce that clever man W ho’s pounding out the music on that old tin pan. His name is Billie Graves and I guess you know H e’s chief of District Ten, down in Ohio. Chorus.

Here’s Brother Wilson, from Tennessee, H e’s not quite as tall as he ought to be, But when it comes to Beta, you can plainly see H e’s as true as any man in the fraternity. Chorus.

8 I will now introduce Brother Dexter Tight, They say he’s a dandy and I guess they’re right. He comes from way out yonder at the Golden Gate, He must have started early, not to get here late. Chorus.

Out The But You

in Colorado, so I ’ve been told, Betas all are loyal and as pure as go ld ; if they ever waver and get off the track, can bet that Ernie Mitchell soon will put them back. Chorus.

Now H e’s H e’s And

here’s Brother Willis, a tough old bird, proud that he’s from Texas, so we often heard. got a forty-eight on his right hand hip he’ll pull it in a minute if you get too flip. Chorus.

11 Old Strat Morton, is this bird’s name; He comes from old St. Louie and it seems a shame, He comes to each convention and he brings his mate; She has to come along to keep the old man straight. Chorus. 12

Brother C. I. Spellman, I now introduce; I could tell you all about him, but there ain’t no use, He hails from Kansas City and they do tell me H e’s a regular gosh darn it down in old K. C. Chorus.

Brother McCulloch, from the great Northwest Thinks he has a district that will beat the best. He came so very far and he got a late start So in the show that is to follow he will have no part. Chorus.

319

320

BETA. LORE 14 M y name’s Springer, better known as B ill; I never did amount to much and never will, But I sneaked into Beta and it’s my belief They pulled an awful boner when they made me Chief. Chorus. 15 There s a lot of other Chiefs who really should be here, But wives and kids and business often interfere, And since they couldn’t be here, I just want to say, They are all right here in spirit, though they’re miles away. Chorus. gf! Kappa Alumni Outing

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A BROW N CH A PTER CALL TO A CLAM BAKE

A t the Mackinac Island Convention of 1924, Andrew W . Kurrus, Wash ington ’ 19, made a great hit with a song written to a popular tune, “ It Ain’t Gwine to Rain No Mo.” His enthusiasm was contagious, the convention crowd and the hotel orchestra joining with vigor in the chorus, under his stimulating leadership. Oh, the Betas thought they’d take a trip A w ay up north this year T o meet the Beta boys again And give the Beta cheer. W e knew we’d meet our officers And district chiefs galore, So I thought I ’d write a song about Our visit at Lake Shore.

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Francis W . Shepardson, Our president is he, And Brother James L. Gavin, He guards our treasury. Our general secretary Is Brother George H. Bruce, He has a bunch of deputies And works them like the deuce. W e have a keeper of the rolls, His name is James T. Brown, For fifty years or more or less H e’s put our names all down. There are some other officers, W e call them grand trustees, They never seem to bother us And so we let them be. I’ve written about the grand moguls; The rest I will leave out, Because we never do a thing But sit around and shout. And when we’ve packed up every grip And said all our goodbys, W e’re mighty glad we’ve spent the time W ith Beta Theta Pis Perhaps here may be added a sample of the invitations and programs for the annual Thanksgiving eve round-up of Indiana Betas at Indianapolis. O11 these occasions the state alumni meet practically the entire undergradu ate membership from the five chapters, at De Pauw, Indiana, Wabash, Hanover, and Purdue, and the flame of Beta enthusiasm and sentiment al ways burns bright. The dominating factor in the literature of the occa sion always is Howard Webster Adams, Indiana ’06. In 1924 the invitation and the program read: HEY FELLAS

It’s gonna be a hard winter— Prospects is bad for everything ’cept the good time yer gonna have at the BETA SHINDIG

which the Indianapolis Bunch is puttin’ on up in the top floor of the Severin on THANKSGIVIN* EVE

Don’t bother about yer biled shirt. If it’s in the laundry just rig yourself up comfortable-like an’ feel grand all evenin’. W ear galluses

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BETA LORE if you want to and take off yer shoes if yer feet hurt. (The place is well ventilated.) Be there at HALF AFTER SIX

an’ get set fer all the vittles you can eat (and what you can’t eat you can rub in yer hair) and then push yer chairs back and square away for THE BIG AFTER-SHOW

that’s gonna be a humdinger. When you see the kind of stuff the actives an’ that Indianapolis crowd put on you’ll be rarin’ fer more A N ’ DON'T FORGET

to let Bill Todd up at 431 Merchants Bank Building, know that you’re cornin’. Just send Bill TWO BUCKS

along with the good word. O f course if you have paid yer dues why just ferget the two bucks part of it— but fer Gosh sake SEND THE WORD

Yours more than ever fer ahelluvagoodtime in blankyblank The Indianapolis Bunch Banquet $2.00 Alumni Dues $1.50 $3.50 well spent The program, which was illustrated by a picture of an ordinary Indiana canine, outlined the special attractions of the occasion: Y e Seventy-Second Annual D O R G C L A S S IC of ye Indianapolis Kennel of Wooglinarians up in Y e Sever in Aery Thanksgiving Eve, 1924

Barks Yips Hot tonic

P R A N D IU M Being ye merrie vivisection of ye festyve dorg Cocktail a la Anaesthesia Meat a la Scalpel Salad Avec Dressing Dorg biscuts

Bites Yowls Cold Pack

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P O S T P R A N D IU M Being ye kindlie pronouncements anent ye recoverie of ye festive dorg Conducted by H O W A R D W E B S T E R A D A M S , Director of ye Ceremonies First Comes Y e Encomiums Voiced by N O B L E C H A S E B U T L E R and then Y e Panegyrics Voiced by F R E D C. G A U S E during which ceremonies ye festyve dorg will bask in ye shade of ye spreading chestnut tree P O S T P O S T P R A N D IU M Being ye gladsome festival in token of ye valour of ye festive dorg (Unexpurgated) Delta Revue

Y e Four Horsemen

. .

I. . II.

. .

De Pauw’s Delineators

. . Indiana’s Iridescents III. Dark and Dreary— A Laminated Lament . . Purdue’s Pundits IV . .................................................... Hanoverian Highlights Hotchpotch V. The Beta Choiristers . . . . . Wabash Warblers VI. B E T A A L U M N I P A S T IC H E 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Seemfunnique Tone Poem. Chanson and Danse Eccentrique . . Adolphus de Miller Beta Freres W eekly . . Exhumed by George Heighway Beta Harmony Four— R. Rust, H. Wilson, H. Shepard, G. Heighway Incredible Incidents. IN C R E D IB L E IN C ID E N T S I. II. III. IV . V. V I. V II.

In seven stanzettes depicting Collegian Idiosyncrasies (1925 Model.) Cafe de la Pay. Y e Barber Shoppe Chorde. “ Go, Going, Gone.” The Phone Girl’s Faux Pas. Henri, Can you Afford? Sweet Mama. L ’Enfant Terrible.

BETA LORE Interference by A L B R E C H T R. C. K IP P , Prologus Oblongatus

Assisted by Divers and Sundry Quaint Thespians Y e Limehouse Blues.

The Following Ancients Participate Howard W . Adams Albrecht R. C. Kipp Max Recker Herschel E. Davis Tom Luckett Roland Rust L. Mark De Hass Harry Martin Harry Shepard Weber Donaldson Norman Metzger Willson G. Todd Fred W . Glossbrenner Ad. Miller Harland Wilson George Heighway Radio by courtesy of none other than Brother Pat Connell, the Radio King, late of Wabash, and now of Kruse-Connell Co. B O U L A M A I !!! What Ho! brother Beta W e ’v e G o t a P la c e S a v e d F o r Y o u ! At the State Banquet, November 28

Mail Reservations to, or call, Brother H. D . Wilson Columbia Club, Indianapolis

A N I N D IA N A P O L IS I N V I T A T IO N

A t the White Sulphur Springs Convention of 1923 District Chief Baily, after referring casually to those of his hearers whose knowledge of Latin was limited to “ Gemma Nostra,” introduced a play upon a then current expression, “ Yes, we have no bananas today.” He declined, however, to guarantee the Latinity of his banana poem. It read:

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Verum est quod nos non habemus bananas, Bananas non habemus hodie, Nos habemus string beans et onions, Cabbages, et scallions et omnes sortes fructus et dicite, Nos habemus quosdam seniles tomatoes, Bonos quosdam Insulam Longam potatoes, Sed verum est quod nos non habemus bananas, Nos non habemus bananas hodie.

These lines recalled to some of the older Betas present a souvenir of the Convention of 1872, also held in Virginia. In 1872 there probably was not a member of Beta Theta Pi who had not studied Latin, so that the attendants upon the famous Richmond Convention of that year appreciated greatly the programme which carried transliterations of the names of famous Betas of the day, Armstrong, Brouse, Covington, Grant, Johnson, Lozier, Seaman, W alker and Wise. This programme which was printed in Beta Theta P i fifty-six years ago is reproduced for the benefit of the present generation and as a companion piece to the Bailey banana ballad of 1923. In all likelihood its author, also, refused to contend for its absolute classicality.

E X H IB IT Q. (WRITTEN IN DOO LA TIN BV BEQUEST.)

Ama Me. Ama “Dorgum” meum /

(Jnw crtidus!

Quis crndus! pro patre MTosgltit, et Silente bob-cauda-ed M u ta tio

H o s p it iu m

suo "Dorgo”

R ic h m o n d , V a .

)

a. d. X K al. Sept. m d c c c l x x i i . S Frater 0 . It. Brousus, ab Alpha Alumni, scdilc honoris habuit. Ad dextram Frater, W . I I . G. Adneyus, ab K ap p a; ad sinistram Frater Carolus J . Nauta, ab Alpha Eta, sermones suo^festivitate et lepore condiunt. Apud alterum mensae terminum Frater Johannes I. Covingtonus ab Epsilon Alumni squattuit: ad dextram, Frater Johannes S. Sapiens, ab Oniicron verborum sono luduit, et purpus suus ••Damsiegono” aurem scabit et caudam uiggleit; ad sinistram Frater Carolus D. Ambulator, ab Alpha Theta, pro pullo gallinaceo frixo iv it: Nos caneni-itum taurinum coenam habuinius. Omnes Fellowrum grubuin frigidum ferierunt. Ktiani sortes cantavimus. Sed villaticuscaniscaudare descriptionem meant me oportet. Quam omnes distenti sunt nempe Frater Hixus, ab Alpha Theta, Frater Brousus propinationes annunciavit. I. O i'ii E

m b l e m s :—

•'These emblems in the past were twined W ith bays thnt_canuotdie.” Frater J . A. Brachinmvalens, ab Zeta, respondit. I I . B e t a :— ■‘He who on self relies. B ares others help despise, Makes feeble fight. Frater W . H. G. Adneynns. ab Kappa, respondit.

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BETA LORE III. T h e t a — “To meet the foes o f truth and right. In march through earth to heaven.” Frater Carolus D. Ambulator, ab Alpha TW ta, flunkuit, Frater Johannes W . Rosebro, ab Zeta, ilium juvit. IV

P i :—

"So grasp hands together, let Pi answer Pi. The vow spoken on earth is written on high.” Frater Johannes I. Covingtonus, ab Kpsilon Alumni, respondit. V Oun C om m o n B r o t h e r h o o d :— "W e are a band o f brothers here, Bound by a mystic tie ” Frater Johannes S. Sapiens surrexit; Damsiegono sternuit, Frater Sapiens rin git; Damsiegono ululavit; Dominus purpum calchravit, et hoc more eum obtinuit; purpus subsidit, post hoc sermo Fratris Sapi antis taurinus fviit. V I. “ T i i b J o l l y G r e e k s :” — And may the sons she ever meets, B e worthy o f the Jo lly Greeks. Crater A. N. Concessio, ab Delta, respondit, V II. Oun F o u n d e r s :— "B e worthy o f the name they gave.” Frater 0 . R. Brousus, ab Alpha Alumni, respondit. Noster excellentissimus ‘-Canatomical dissector.” Frater J H Lozierus ab Gamma Alumni, abfuit. Ob hac causa Frater Johannes I Covingtonus “Cimatomist,” constitutus est. Silent" et graviter-Dorgum” carpsit, et utrique fratrum magnum chunkum dedit. Frater W . N. Johannesfilius, ab Rho, lit fia*n Lozieri hunkus mitteretnr sugge.ssit. Turn cantavimus. Salv e! B eta Theta Pi, Tu Regina pura; Cara tu meo Cordi, Cara, Cara, Cara."

The closing song is to be noted. It shows how for some years the word “ cara,” meaning dear was repeated three times in the chorus, until the author discovered the error, his last word having been “ cura,” rhyming with “ pura” above, this meaning a care, or an object of solicitude.

BORAH PAID FOR THE TURKEYS The annual “ Turkey Pull” of the Kansas chapter is one of the cele brated established feasts in Beta Theta Pi. Already story and legend attend it. The Literary Digest told one of these in an article headed, “ Senator Borah stole no turkeys but he paid for them.” A t Topeka, Kan sas, April 8, 1919, William E. Borah, Kansas ’89, speaking at a Beta dinner, claimed a full share in getting the turkeys. But the story ran as follow s: Some years ago in Lawrence, Kansas, several enterprising students of the University of Kansas, belonging to the same fraternity, were gathered together with nothing much to do. Borah, destined for future fame in the Senate of the United States, was of the number. Somebody, or perhaps it was the Old One himself, who is supposed to spend much time supplying jobs for people with nothing to do, suggested that a pleasant and profitable way to spend the evening would be to conduct a raid .on the poultry-yard of a farmer who lived not far from the town. One of the students knew several girls, students in the university, who. could cook turkey in the most approved fashion. The crowd agreed with some enthusiasm that the proper thing to do was to “ lift” a few turkeys and have a feast. O f all that company only the future Senator objected. Such conduct, he declared with indignation that presaged his future emotions when consid

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ering the League of Nations, was unworthy of students and gentlemen. A t least a writer in the Baltimore Sun vouches for Senator Borah’s indignation and sinlessness in the matter of stealing turkeys. As the writer explains: ‘‘Perhaps he already saw the Senatorial toga afar and wished no un worthy action to rise up to stain the honor of that office. But the con sciences of his fellow students were callous to the eloquent rebukes of this future guardian of the morals of a nation. They told him he might return to his lonely room and his studies if he wanted, but they were going after turkey. The future Senator went back to his kerosene-lamp and the study of constitutional law while his unregenerate companions made their way under cover of darkness to the farmer’s place. Even the member studying for the ministry went along. He had no intention of stealing turkey— oh, no— but he wanted to see a neat job done. This man was a football player as well as theological student and proved one of the most valuable members of the party. For as they crept toward the turkey-roost a faithful watch-dog made a vicious charge upon them. The embryonic parson fell upon that dog with all the skill of a football artist capturing a muffed pigskin, and when the party was ready to with draw he left the faithful dog with neither breath nor bark in him, to say nothing of bite. The turkeys were safely stored away, and in course of time the conscienceless crowd feasted on the fruits of their raid. The future Senator scorned to taste the forbidden food. He rated a clear con science higher than a full stomach. Some days later the same crowd again found time hanging heavy on their hands. The turkeys were gone— so was Borah. While these idlers let time slip past, this earnest student continued to pore over the pages of that book on constitutional law as it lay under the glare of his well-filled lamp. In the meantime, his companions thought of the turkeys and sighed. The memory whetted their appetites for another feast. They called in a man of the town— not a student— and explained the whole situation to him. Within a short time they had enlisted his help in a new nefarious scheme, and had dressed him up like a farmer of the most violent type of Populism, then rampant in Kansas. Sockless Jerry Simpson would have recognized him as an own brother. It was the type specially hateful to Borah. This man went to the professor’s house where Borah roomed. At the door he demanded in tones that penetrated even to the room with the lamp and the book on constitutional law wanting to know if a man named “ Borer” lived there. The professor’s wife, who answered the door, re plied that Mr. Borah roomed there, and pointed the way. Borah had pushed back the green shade from tired eyes and waited to greet the stranger. “ Is your name Borer?” demanded the farmer again. “ My name is Borah,” answered the man of future greatness, with a touch of dignity that was to become habitual with him. “ Do you belong to the Bite-the-Pie Club?” further queried the farmer. “ I don’t know what you mean,” replied Borah. “ Well, do you belong to this here thing?” and he held out a paper with the name of the Greek-letter fraternity written on it. “ Yes, I belong to that,” replied the student. “ I know you do,” said the farmer. “ Don’t get any idea I’m asking for information. You belong, and so does”— and here the farmer enumerated

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the full membership of the chapter of that fraternity. “ Furthermore, I want you to understand that I know that it was this crowd that robbed me of half a dozen fine turkeys.” “ I had no part in any such proceeding,” exclaimed Borah. “I know that, too,” said the farmer. “ That’s the reason I have come to see you. You seem to be the only one that has any sense. But you knew they were going to do it, and I calculate that makes you about as bad as the rest of them before the law. And I just came around to tell you that I ’m going to have the whole lot of you arrested in the morning, and you’re the first one I’m going for.” Visions of the disgrace of the thing ran before this lover of the law. He knew the merciless chatter and the relentless gossip of the small col lege town. He saw the honor of his beloved fraternity dragged in the dust. W ith great tact he suggested to the farmer that if any such wrong had been perpetrated it must have been in the nature of a joke and that full restitution would be made. The farmer wanted restitution right away, and the upshot of the matter was that Borah compromised with him for ten dollars. He congratulated himself that the incident was closed as far as the farmer was concerned. In this surmise he was quite correct, for

BEEN GREEK PLAYERS

Diogenes - Honest, now, is it good? Socrates — Cosh, all hem lock, yes! A

e d u c t io n

th e by

th e

nnouncem ent

h ic a g o

th e

C o m m it t e e

lay

Sent O

AROUND TH E CORNER

329

the crowd of unregenerates enjoyed another feast that same night in which the temporary farmer had his full share. But when Borah appealed for the return of his ten dollars he found indeed that the incident was closed.”

AROUND THE CORNER The committee on arrangements for an alumni reunion at Columbus, Ohio, on March 31, 1917, made its appeal for support through a circular letter which had an unusual feature in the form of a paraphrase of a popu lar poem. There was the accustomed reference to “ live wires” and the clinching of individual interest was anticipated by the rubber-stamped in formation “ Your reservation has been made.” How much effect they had upon the alumni may be questioned. But the unusual feature must have awakened some memories. Here it i s : “ Around the corner I have a friend In this great city that has no end. Y et days go by and weeks rush on And, before I know it, a year is gone. And I never see my old chum’s face, For life is a swift and terrible race. He knows that I like him just as well A s in the days when we gave the ‘yell’ For Pater Knox. W e were younger then, But now we are busy, tired m en: Tired of playing the foolish gam e: Tired of trying to make a name. ‘Tomorrow/ I say, T will call on Jim Just to show that I’m thinking of him.’ But tomorrow comes, and tomorrow goes, And the distance between us grows and grows. “ Around the corner-—yet miles away, ‘Here’s a telegram, Sir’........... ‘Jim died today.’ That’s what we get— and deserve— in the end Around the corner— a vanished friend. “ So now, my brother, I plead with you Not to let this of you be true. There’s an old time dorg, next Saturday eve, So drop all your business worries and leave All care at home. Just come along And join with us in the Beta song. Tomorrow comes— and tomorrow will fly So we send this call in ‘phi-kai-phi’.”

Chapter X I I I — B eta Fiction

GRIF’S CANDIDATE B

il l is

obb,

Ohio Wesleyan

’7 9

When Grif Ormsby took the floor in chapter-meeting, the presiding officer having announced that the next order of business was “ proposals for membership,” not one of the sixteen other Betas present could have guessed what he was going to say. The year was half gone; there hadn’t been a new name proposed for half-a-dozen meetings; the boys had been rather more successful than usual in the fall campaign, and the chapter membership was already pretty large, according to the Beth-peor standard; above all, not one of them could call up a single name in college that he would care to have added to the list; they had certainly canvassed all the possibilities long ago. But it would be like Grif to propose Black George, the janitor of Terry Hall, or Joey Bates, the town fool, and follow up the proposal with a speech of recommendation that would be fun alive. So the chairs began to tilt back against the wall, and their occupants to choose positions that would offer as little hindrance to mirthfulness as possible. For Grif never failed of a hearing in fraternity meeting, though he was only a sophomore, and not at the head of his class, either. This time, however, he disappointed the back-tilted chairs. It wasn’t a funny speech at all. But it took the house by surprise more completely than the most unexpected joke could have done. “ Mr. President and brothers,” he began in the formal way the chapter always taught its members to address the meeting, “ I rise to propose for membership in our beloved chapter and fraternity, Mr. Karl Welling of the Sophomore class.” Several of the chairs, dropped upon their front legs again, especially such as had only got half-way back. Somebody emitted a plaintive though aspirated whistle, which was responded to from the opposite side of the room by a gasp that narrowly missed being a groan. Only two or three, and those of the older members, looked serious and held their peace. Meanwhile Grif was going steadily on with his speech. “ I know that most o f you have never even thought of Welling as a possible Beta; I never did until lately. But I have been studying the fellow a good deal and am convinced that he has in him the making of a first-class fraternity man. I have been with him in all his classes for a year and a half, and know his style pretty well. H e’s an even, clear headed fellow, who does about as well in all his studies as he does in any one, which is. saying a good deal, and works one day as well as another. He is well read, too. He floored old Durham the other day on a point about Henry V I, or some other medieval moke, and did it easy. O f course you all think he’s an unsocial kind of bird— ” “ W hy, G rif,” broke in Roy Carter, “he’s a wooden man! H e’s the worst mucker in all Beth-peor. I’d as soon fraternize with a fall rain as with Karl W elling!” And Roy’s face expressed the disgust he left un spoken. 330

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33i

“ No,” said Grif, “he’s nobody’s wooden man, either. If I thought he were, I ’d keep still. I don’t care to have the chapter go into the lumber business any more than you do, I suppose: am not just that kind of folks, myself. But you’re wrong about Welling. It is true, of course, that he has made but very few friends in college, and that his own apparent lack of congeniality is the reason for it. Still, I stick to my first statement, that he has in him the making of an A - i fraternity man. The whole trouble with him is just like this— he’s a fellow who has never learned the value of friendship. I don’t know anything about his home life ; he doesn’t come from my part of the state. But I ’ll bet the' oysters for the chapter to a package of cigarettes that he has never had an intimate friend in his life, and that personal confidences and displays of affection are not the rule in his father’s family. I feel sure that Welling would like to be as social and companionable as other fellows, if he only knew how; but that he doesn’t know how, and is conscious of it, and chooses to exaggerate his natural offishness rather than display any clumsiness in accepting or responding to the advances that otherwise might be made to him. Once fairly broken in to live on intimate terms with other people, he would be one of the best fellows going. I don’t often make a set speech in chapter-meeting, boys, but I have taken a great deal of interest in studying Welling’s case lately and I believe I have got the right diagnosis of it. And it seems to me it would be a good thing, if our chapter were to take hold of Welling, and give him an education in the affections, so to speak; it would pay us, and be the making of him. O f course I know that no action on his name can or ought to be taken right away. But I wish the boys would take the trouble to study up the facts of the case in a quiet way, and see if I ’m not right. W e can afford to do that much, at least, and Welling need be little the wiser for our passing him in review before us.” And Grif sat down in a silence that was not altogether a protest. His little speech had clearly had its effect. Pretty soon Walter Bennett, one of the seniors, arose and said, cordially: “ I think this is about the best speech Grif has made us. I confess Welling has never seemed to me a very attractive fellow, but I am not at all sure the account we have just heard of his case is not the true one, and that we could not make out of him a Beta of the real Beth-peor stamp. A t any rate I suggest that we give G rif’s candidate a chance, and that each of us make it his business to arrive at a more definite and careful judgment in the matter, with the purpose of reporting upon the same at a future meeting.” And they did. And it is surprising how swiftly and accurately a group of fraternity men can take the measure of a fellow when once they set about i t ; surprising, also, how many new traits in a man’s character seem to be developed by the simple operation of holding him steadily in view for a while. However, the boys took their time to the Welling investigation; and the new light they obtained did not come all at once. Starting, as we have seen, with the almost universal feeling that the man was a stick, and quite lacking in the first and most indispensable requisite of a fraternity man, it was some time before they began rightly to appreciate the justice of Grif Ormsby’s shrewd bit of philosophy, and to see in “ G rif’s Candidate”

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the qualities his sponsor had discerned before them. Meanwhile, as Grif had foreseen, W elling himself was quite ignorant of the inspection he was undergoing. The boys were expert in the art of reconnoissance, and though the object of their fixed regard must have been dimly conscious that rather more wearers of a certain fraternity badge crossed his path, in a casual manner, than he had been used to meet with, the circumstance did not draw a theory in its train. It was customary in the Beth-peor chapter never to take a formal ballot on a candidate until every member of the chapter had expressed his readi ness to vote; for it was a chapter by-law that no name, once black-balled, could be proposed again during the same college y e a r; and the desire to give all nominations a fair chance prompted to deliberation in recording the final verdict. Accordingly some weeks passed by before the name of Karl Welling came up for action. One by'one the boys had been coming around to G rif’s way of thinking, and making up their minds, with more or less of curious expectancy in the make-up product, that the experiment he proposed was worth trying. And when at last the decisive vote was taken, and the sergeant-at-arms drew the slide in the ballot-box to show the result to the presiding officer, there were only white balls in the box. The election was formally declared, and Grif Ormsby appointed as a committee of one to notify the candidate. Grif protested, with a vigor that was half comic and half desperate, his unfitness for the task. But the chapter would not have it otherwise, and he had to accept the commission, though he felt sure, so he said, that he would prove just clumsy enough to flush the bird instead of bagging it. In sober truth, G rif’s reluctance was by no means all assumed. Though still convinced that he had been right in proposing Welling’s election, and thoroughly glad the chapter had come at last to his position, it now appeared to him, upon closer view, that the task of fairly presenting the case to W ell ing himself was likely to be one of uncommon difficulty— an “ awkward business/’ to use his own inward description of its aspect. But Grif never put off a duty very long because of its difficulty; and the evening of the day following his appointment found him standing in the hall outside the door of Karl W elling’s room in Frankenburg Street, wondering whimsi cally, as he tapped on it, whether it was likely he should ever become a familiar visitor there. “ Come,” and he opened the door and went in. Karl was at his study table, in dressing-gown and reading-visor, but rose at once when his visitor entered. “ Oh, is it you, Ormsby? Come in. I’m glad to see you!” It was not quite the first time Grif had been in his room, and he had a real admiration for his bright-faced, quick-witted classmate— as, indeed, all had who knew him; for Grif was undeniably popular. “ You were at Plautus, weren’t you?” said Grif, after they had talked a minute, and glancing at the book on the table. “ Well, I shouldn’t mind trying a whirl at that gifted heathen, myself. Suppose we go on together.” So they sat down side by side, and spent a quarter of an hour oyer The Captives, getting more and more friendly as they read, and laughing together every now and then at G rif’s running commentary on the play. Grif felt that there was a slight thaw in the weather, and determined not to lose time in taking advantage of it.

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“ Welling,” he said, as they closed the book and pushed back their chairs, and the final laugh subsided, “ I ’ve something rather particular to say to you tonight, and I may as well say it while it’s fresh in my mind. You were last evening elected, by a unanimous vote, to membership in our fra ternity, and I was appointed to notify you of the fact. I hope, with all my heart, that you will accept the election, and make one of our number.” And he spoke with a hearty frankness which warmed his words as they went. To say that Karl was astonished, both by the words and manner of this brief speech, would be to use a very simple term to describe a very complex sensation. In after, days, he himself often laughed and abandoned the at tempt when he tried to explain his feelings at this sudden and bewildering turn of affairs. He sat now, quite still, his face slowly changing color, his hands fumbling for something on the table, and his voice quite failing to do its duty. “ Why, Ormsby,” he said at last, “ I— I— you astonish m e; I hardly under stand— that— is— I don’t know what to say,” as he clearly didn’t— nor had he a very good tongue to say it with, just then, if he had known. “ W ell,” said Grif quietly, “ there isn’t any great hurry, you know ; you have all the evening before you, and my time is cheap. I’ll wait.” Karl laughed, in a nervous, excited way, then growing sober again rose and walked slowly to the mantel, where he stood looking into the open grate for several minutes, with his hands in his pockets, and the fire light playing on his half-averted face. Grif who was watching him closely, was surprised at the change wrought in his usual plain and quiet appear ance. A fter a while— a good long while, it seemed to his guest— K arl began speaking, without taking his eyes from the fire, and in a voice that he was clearly trying to force into its ordinary tone, but that had to be allowed to stop from time to time as he went o n : “ I think,” he said slowly, “that your fraternity has made a mistake. You have taken me so by surprise that maybe I shan’t be able to make it quite clear as it seems to me, but I’ll try. Please understand that— that I am very grateful to you all, and that I do not undervalue the honor you have offered m e; the standing of the men in your fraternity here in college is certainly a very high one, and there is no student in Beth-peor who might not be proud to be associated with them. But I don’t in the least understand why they should have thought of me in the light of a fellow fraternity man. I have never been very well acquainted with the men of your crowd; I know you better than any of the rest, and yet even we have not been thrown together much. And it seems to me I am not the sort of man for a fraternity-member, anyhow to tell the truth. I am not very social by nature, I think, and have never been used to living on very confidential terms with other fellows.” (G rif smiled a little, to himself, as Karl used almost his own words to the boys, that first night in chapter meeting.) “ Not that I really dislike companionship; you know better than that. But it has just never been my way to have much of it. And I truly believe that I never miss it, in the w ay many people would. This has be come to me ‘the natural way of living,’ you see.” “ No,” said Grif, interrupting for the first time, though there had been several pauses in W elling’s speech before, “ no; it isn’ t the natural way of

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living, at all, not even for you. It is true, perhaps, that you have never known any other way, but that makes no difference; you have simply missed something that you ought not to have missed, and that no one ever ought to miss. Now listen to me for a while.” And Grif went on, in earnest way, to tell what his fraternity friendships had been, and were, in his own life— how they made a sacred inner court in it, that seemed a center of all sweet and strong influences— how the arms of brotherly friendship seemed always to be about him, making all delights dearer and all ills easier to bear. As he talked, there came, all unconsciously, a mist into his eyes, and a tenderness into his voice that affected his listener more powerfully than any logic into which mere words can be shaped could possibly have done. It was not an argument, but a revelation. And Welling began to feel that his whole nature was being made over in the presence of it. He was bewildered by the change yet he could not but wish it might go on, so acute and thrilling was the pleasure of it. It was after midnight when they separated at last; and the long talk had brought them very close together indeed. To one of them it was the beginning of a new era. For Karl had given his word to the fraternity, and it had been accepted with a handclasp that made him feel the new relation was already begun. Grif never made any very detailed report of his mission to the chapter; the truth was, he couldn’t recall just what had been said, and he answered all inquiries for particulars in a more or less unsatisfactory manner. When Roy Carter pressed him for some of the points of his talk with Karl, Grif only smiled, and said, in a most grandfatherly and soothing voice, “ There, n o w ! Don’t you sprain that agile intellect of yours trying to probe into the deeper mysteries.” The initiation came off the next Saturday night, and everybody said it was the best of the year. And before the “ little spread” that followed had been disposed of, all doubt of the wisdom of their step had been banished from every mind. Y et not even the bright and joyous aspect of his initiation-night, dear as it always remained to his memory, did so much to complete and ratify for Karl the work G rif’s talk had begun as did a little incident that happened a week or two later. It was hardly an incident, either; at least, Karl never felt certain that any particular thing had happened so much as that some thing had become. He had dropped in, one evening, after study hours, at Walter Bennett’s room— for it surprised everyone, himself most of all, to see how quickly he had acquired and come to enjoy that same “ dropping-in” habit— and found there two or three of the boys already engaged in conversation. His entrance was but a momentary interruption, and soon the talk went on in its own channels, with Karl, at first, a silent but deeply interested listener. It was such a talk as, perhaps, only college-men have. It moved from one topic to another, but slowly, gravely, and half in reverie. What struck K arl at once was that the speakers seemed almost to bare their very souls to each other; the odd fancies and vagaries, the half-formed thoughts and shadows of thoughts; the deep inward musings that all men, especially all young men, have, and yet that many a man supposes none but himself to know anything about— all these were spoken out quite freely and simply, as though it were a matter of course that they should be.

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Did it mean this then— the fraternity bond he had entered into? Did it mean that men came to know each other, not merely in their ordinary traits of character, but in the very inmost recesses of their souls, where only their dreams abide? He had not supposed such things could be. It was as if a new world had suddenly been unveiled in void mid-air. Little by little he felt himself drawn into the current of the talk, timidly at first, as a voyager on an unknown stream, but with more and more of freedom and earnestness as the new, strange force took possession of him. And when he went to his room at last he knew right well that his real entrance into fraternity life had been made. Men who have had one such talk to gether will never be strange to each other again in all the world. Grif Ormsby and Roy Carter had been working until late one night in the chapter-hall, decorating it for the annual reception, to be given the next day. This work had made them hungry, and they got a can of oysters and had a private stew all to themselves in the “ chapter kitchen.” A s they blew their soup, Roy suddenly said, in his impulsive w ay: “ Grif, do you know you deserve a monument for that Welling business— a monument higher than the chapel spire?” “ Thanks for the hint,” said Grif, tranquilly, “ But I don’t seem to feel that I ’ve got around to monuments yet. If you will just pass the pickles instead, we’ll save the monuments for the next course.” [This story was first published in the Beta Theta Pi, Vol. X II, No. 2, November, 1884. Brother Robb was editor of the magazine that year. Brother Baird says: “ A n unusual amount of news from other fraternities was a feature of the volume, and it was made notable by three pieces of fiction which were widely copied, and excited general commendation, viz., ‘G rif’s Candidate,’ November, 1884; ‘His Second Degree,’ January, 1885, the ‘Minutes of the Diogenes Club,’ the latter, by Syl G. Williams, being continued in desultory fashion through three volumes.” A footnote says o f the first named article, ‘So far as is known to the editor, this was the first fictitious story dealing with a fraternity subject ever written.’ ” (Baird: Hand-Book of Beta Theta Pi, p. 203.) ]

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THE BETA GRIP B

alph

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Wesleyan

’04

Ernest Stewart Malcolm had reached a crisis in his life. For out of the years of college and medical school, and later in the hospital, he had borne a cynicism on the subject of love, and now love was pouring through the last remnants of his cynical battlements. In fact, the young M.D. had surrendered unconditionally to the enemy, and the lights of the conquering passions illumined his usually somber face and made it glow. It was not a sudden fancy that possessed him. He had reasoned well with himself, to see if the powers of his college logic would not help him to prove it a hallucination. Madeline Comte, however, was no hallucination; although, as he thought how beautiful she had looked the night before, he almost wondered if he would not awake and find it all a dream. And tonight he was to ask her to be his w ife! He tried hard to frame in his mind the words he wished to tell h er; but in this he made a dismal failure, and finally decided that he would deliver his speech impromptu, with the hope that in the excitement of the hour the phraseology would not attract attention. This was a bold determination for him to make, for even after he discovered his love for her he had fought against its growth, and had decided that he would bury it alive rather than let her know it had been born. But this resolution, like those before it, went down with a crash, too fully shaken to arise and reassert itself. He was entirely won to this new, strange feeling, and as he looked at his watch he half-wished that he had sent his regrets to the alumni dinner— not that he did not enjoy these semi annual gatherings with his old-time fraternity mates (for they were hours never to be forgotten by him), the royal welcome from the undergraduates, the happy embrace with the boys with whom he had “ dug out” Cicero and Plato, the sad tidings of another brother fallen in the battle, and the soulthrilling reunion around the altar whose significance grew dearer to him as the years brought a clearer realization of what it all meant. No man who had ever sung his chapter songs and felt the growing strength his fraternity mates imparted to him could ever find these gatherings uneventful or fruitless. It was the new love in his life that made him think of cutting the dinner, not a loss of interest in the altar of his youth. But the dinner would be over early and he would slip out during the walk-around. He thought of the argument which his chum and he had carried on to gether from their freshman year right up to classday. Would Raymond Burt— now “ Raymond Gilwell Burt, attorney-at-law”— think him a traitor to early principles if he could read his mind tonight? For in the glow of en thusiasm which had marked Ernest’s initiation into the ranks of the Greeks, he had confided to his chum a deep impression which was becoming a part of his early college life. It was the feeling that, come what might into a fellow’s life, nothing should ever stand ahead of his love for his chapter and his fellow Betas. “ Not even a woman?” his chum had responded. “ Not even a woman, Ray! N o love can ever possess me like the love I have for the fellows here in the house. Their interest shall come first. And, old man”— there was the undying sincerity of buoyant youth in Ernest’s voice— “ You shall stand first of all.”

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And although Raymond chided him during his senior year with having made that statement at a time when he knew himself to be a cynic on the subject of love for woman, yet at that moment each felt that, come what might, there was one man on whom each could depend— one man who would understand, no matter at what angle the world might point its finger, or how the wind might act. It was about this time that he had given expression to his cynicism in poetic form. He drew it from his desk now and read it o ver: “W e muse, my fire and I. Dim-lighted on the grate, It turns A reminiscent face toward me, And burns. “W hile I, warmed by old-time, Look kindly in the blaze, Feel young, And revel in a love as yet Unsung. “ W e muse, my fire and I, Pale ashes on the hearth Grow old— A nd Love, illusion of an hour, Lies cold.”

What thoughts came back to him as, absently, he slipped the time-stained verses into his dress-coat pocket! How sure he had been of himself at that time! No woman would ever touch his heart so that he would renounce the solitude of life these lines expressed. Raymond Burt knew all about it; he alone had been confided in. And Ray was to be at the dinner— the first time that he had returned since they graduated, six years before. Ray should hear from his own lips the joyous anticipation that was his. He should be the first to learn that in his heart the old goddess Cynicism was dead. Dear old Ray— how often had they renewed their vow of eternal friendship at the chapter altar, and alone in the quiet after the Sunday night sing, when each man drew the choice of his heart to his room for soul communion. No man knows the real life of his friend like the one who has shared his thought and experiences through the years of a college course. Would Ray rejoice with him in his glory now? As he started up the hill the words of the song of other days ran through his m ind: “The Beta grip will never slip N or Beta love grow cold; T here’ll always be fo r you and me The Beta grip of old.”

O f course he would unite with him in his joy at the escape from a chilling cynicism into a real live passion. If not— well, then he had never known another man, and the traditions of Omega Omega would need revising. The walk from Ernest Malcolm’s office up to the clubhouse was not a long one. The way led up through the avenue which was lined on either side with giant elms. Tonight the heavy foliage let only the tiniest rays of the early evening moon filter through the leaves, thus giving his walk all the poetical background that his thoughts demanded; for out of his prosy

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nature the poet-soul was speaking tonight, and called for all of the beauties with which nature responds to such a cry. Even the wind seemed to under stand, for it rustled softly in the topmost branches, while the birds had ceased their vespers and slept. He had decided to settle in his college town, because of its romantic appeal ance. Even the most imaginative could hardly ask for a more poetic place. Y et Ernest Malcolm was not poetic, in the imaginative sense. Now, as he thought of his reasons for locating there, he wondered if it were a prophetic inspiration of the tune to which his soul had learned to sing in these latter days. Surely there must be some connection, for everything blended so beautifully as he walked slowly on in the moonlight. But the door of the Omega Omega chapter house was before him, and he made a desperate effort to conceal from his face any trace of the thoughts that had lighted up his path far more than did the moonlight. Omega Omega never did things by halves. Hospitality had built her throne in the home of the boys who fought for Beta Theta Pi in the college on the hill. No set springs made her doors difficult to open, and warm handclasps met the returning alumnus at every turn as he strolled about the house. From the top floor a clear view of the lake is to be had, and many an hour have the “ old-timers” sat in the “ Alumni Den,” with lights out and a log on the hearth, talking over the days “ when we were in college.” The “ Alumni Den” is an institution peculiar to Omega Omega chapter. It occupies one-half of the top floor, the other part being used as a chapter room. Thick, easy window seats run around three sides of the room. The chairs are heavy leather Morris chairs, with an occasional rocker for the “ silver-grays.” Each delegation, as it has graduated, has left its delegation picture and its class colors, while all the class trophies that have ever fallen into the hands of Omega Omega men are hung in conspicuous places about the room. The fireplace, one built after the Colonial style, fills the northeast corner of the room. To the east is the lake. It is here that the men separated for years, now united for a few glorious hours, sit and tell how the theories of their undergraduate days have met the burning heat of life’s reality outside their college walls. Tonight the old chapter house was alight from cellar to roof. Broad bands of many-colored rays spread over the lawn, and the diamond, met by the welcome burst of light from the open door, seemed to speak aloud of the hopes and joys of each man as he came up the broad front steps. Every hall and room was full of undergraduates and alumni, faces all radiant with the joy of the hour, telling some new story or listening to one another’s varied experiences since last they had met. The young physician was Soon in the midst of it, but somehow he was not as full of stories of the operating room and the close race with death as usual, so as soon as possible he left the group he was with and sought the “ Den.” The “ Den” was empty at the end by the fireplace, and Ernest sat down in the dark to get the full glory of the lake, now silver in the moonlight. A s he struck a match to light a cigar he heard a slight noise, and turned to behold some one rising from the window seat. “ Let us light together, old man “ R a y ! The very man of all men I ’m glad to see!” A fter these few words the stillness grew intense as each man pressed

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his fellow’s hand and felt the old thrill go over his body. Still in silence they sat down, and for awhile both gazed out onto the lake. “ Well, Ray, how has it gone? Has your old faith in mankind stood the rough shoulder of the world?” “ Faith in mankind” had been R ay’s hobby in the days they had chummed together. “ Once in a while it gets a knock, Ernest; but it still stands as my greatest lever in dealing with others. How is the cynicism these days?” Ernest said nothing. He was thinking how dearly we pay for our early views in the fire of the thought of our after-days. But he would explain the change he had undergone. “ Say, Ernest,” Ray began before he could start his explanation, “ you never told me how that cynicism of yours originated. That was always the sore point, you know, and I believe we tried to avoid the discussion of sore points in those good old days. My, but how the time has flown since then!” “ It was this way, chum,”-—how natural it seemed to slip back into that almost holy epithet, “ chum”— “ It was this way. You know I took chemistry before I entered college and so was allowed to take advanced chemistry freshman year. The fact that our bodies are composed of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen made a big impression on me, and I began to look upon the human being almost as a pure machine. My relations with you caused me to feel differently about men, but I could never get so that I could attach any sentiment to a woman. Then you know how one forgets the cause of a feeling and hangs on to the feeling alone? Well, I am afraid I did that in this case. A t any rate, I forgot the chemistry of my cynicism and built up around the idea I had an extended series of thought on the subject.” “ And that has stuck to you all these years. Ernest, I ’m mighty sorry; you are missing so large a part of life in that view.” “ It has stuck in a measure, but— ” “ Don’t let us discuss it, chum. Let me talk to you of a more hopeful view of life.” Ernest was about to tell of the new light that he had met on the road, but he kept quiet while his chum continued. “ Three years ago— you know I always liked the girls— I was at Martha’s Vineyard. It was my second year at Law School. While I was there I met the sweetest girl that ever lived. W e became acquaintances, scarcely more, yet I enjoyed her company as I never had that of the girls in this dear old college town. “ Last summer we met again. This time I had a chance to get better acquainted. Don’t think me light-headed if I tell you that we had a mutually enjoyable time. When we parted we were friends. Then this winter— oh, Ernest, you ought to have seen h e r!— I was at a house-party to which she was invited and I lost my head entirely.” “ Congratulations, R ay; I— ” “ W ait a minute; I’m not through. I ’ve got it so badly that I’m going to ask the dear girl to be my wife. I’d not tell this to another, but I know you Ernest, from the olden days, and, although you look at these things from a different point of view, I know that you’ll rejoice in my happiness and wish me success.” “ Wish you success, Ray? No one can wish you better, for as in the

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old days when together we burned the candle to the socket in that mad endeavor to pass a creditable examination in Prexy’s Ethics, my heart and hand is yours! Tell me her name— do I know her?” “ Madeline Comte. She lives here in town.” “ Madeline Comte!”— his voice trembled a little— “ Yes, I know her Rav Fine g ir l!” The bluish circles of smoke curled upward unheeded for a few moments. Both men were deeply moved, one over the joy that lay just ahead, the other over the rapture he had lost before it was his. Ernest Malcolm bit his cigar. Should he tell Ray of the hopes which he had cherished? How he was bound on the same errand himself? N o; his dream was over. The ties of brotherhood were stronger than he knew. Down in the music room the boys were singing. It was time to go down to dinner. Up through the hall came the strain he had just begun to love, the song of the girl and the Beta pin. The face of the young physician began to change. The oldtime hardness was returning, but as Ray asked him to repeat the little poem to him, he winced and an uncertain light filled his eyes. “ I can’t, Ray. It’s hardly in harmony with your joy. Here it is, though, if you wish to read it.” “ W hat! Carry it with you as a fetish, do you? You certainly are proof against woman and love.” Raymond Burt never knew how exceedingly hot had burned the fire that had proved his chum’s theory and his freshman pledge. But in the moon light the diamond shone with a new fire. Betas were Betas still.

NOBLESSE OBLIGE B

A r t h u r H obson Q u in n ,

Pennsylvania

’9 4

Stanton took the step only after several weeks of careful thought and after consultation with every alumnus of the chapter he could reach. “ It’s up to us,” he explained. “ The chapter has been running the News ever since it’s been a daily and the college has grown accustomed to our having the editor-in-chief. Now my term ends in February, and practically anyone I choose will be elected. If it’s not one of us, why, that will give the Thetes a chance to say we didn’t have anyone fit for the job.” He paused every time he came to this point in the explanation and waited for the answering question, which was always, the same. “ Carroll’s the only man we have in the Junior class, isn’t he?” Yes. Then there would come another pause and the particular alumnus would s a y : “ Carroll’s an awfully nice fellow— but do you think he can do it?” Stanton was very doubtful on this point, and no one had more reason to be. He had been editor-in-chief of the daily paper of the college for a year, and Carroll had been managing editor during the same time. The duties of an editor-in-chief are to write the editorials and to direct the policy of the paper generally. The managing editor’s business is to get the news in shape and to direct the associate editors, who take daily or rather

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nightly shifts at sitting up till one o’clock and reading proof. Incidentally and depending 011 their respective natures, one of them worries himself to death. Carroll had arrived at his position of managing editor by a process of exclusion. He was the oldest junior on the Board of Editors and Stanton had wanted him to have the place, and what Stanton wanted he usually obtained. He failed utterly, however, in persuading Carroll to work. That genial person was everywhere except in the editorial rooms or the printinghouse. If the news came in he was pleased; if it did not he was equally satisfied, and went off cheerfully his several ways, trusting that “ Buck,” as Stanton was termed, would see to it. Stanton did see to it. To the college in general, the News was a great success, and seemed the product of careful and efficient management, but it almost cost Stanton his degree. He spoke to Carroll once or twice and the latter reformed for a week, but he soon relapsed and -Stanton gave up, in despair of him, and did the work of both men himself.

It was this state of affairs which caused the retiring Editor-in-chief such anxiety. He knew that the News must be a credit to the college, he felt more than doubtful of Carroll’s ability to guide the paper, and he was just as unwilling that the long succession of Beta editors should end with himself. The problem was complicated, moreover, by Molloy. Molloy was next in succession to Carroll and was about as different from the latter as any mortal could be. He had an instinctive sense for news, could write it up quickly and correctly, and was a positive genius in the matter of proof reading. He could tell, too, at a glance, just how much space an article would fill and could understand the dean’s handwriting, which had long been a traditional impossibility in the office. “ The only thing against Molloy,” to quote one of his class, “ was Molloy.” Candidates worked under him for a day and then suddenly found that “too many hours” would prevent them trying any longer for the Board. The compositors in Dunn’s printing-house worked on “ Molloy’s night” only under threat of discharge, and yet no one could make any definite charge against him. It was “ Mr. Molloy’s way,” they said. It was not his way, however; it was something deeper. Tact and he were strangers, it is true, but that might not have mattered. The real trouble was that there was nothing in his nature that could take the place of it. Molloy expected to become editor-in-chief. This became apparent a week before the election, when rumors of “ a change of policy in the Daily News” and “ a breaking down of the Beta clique” began to arise in under graduate circles. Molloy had a way of starting rumors, of “ creating a senti ment,” as he termed it, and if anything had been needed to strengthen Stanton in his determination to have Carroll elected it would have been this action of Molloy. The day before the election Stanton and Carroll took a long walk to gether. Just what passed between them no one knew, and there was no outward sign of any inward grace which had come to either in consequence, and yet something had happened. The election passed off as Stanton had arranged, and his only regret came from the choice of Molloy to succeed Carroll as managing editor. Stanton did not like Molloy, and yet, after all, it was with a sensation of partial relief that he reflected that as far as news

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E very member of the Board recognized, after the first meeting under the new regime, that a subtle change had come over Carroll, which, however, no one was able to analyze. It became more concrete in the week that followed. Dunn’s printing-house, to which Carroll had been a total stranger, now became his constant haunt. The editor of the night began to look for a visit from his chief as a matter of course, and if he was detained down town and hurried breathless up the long stairs which led to the com posing room, he usually found Carroll taking his place, reading proof or pasting up the paper. Carroll never said anything on these occasions; in fact, he never criticized the work of his editors at all, but if a particularly glaring error appeared, the responsible party found a marked copy of the paper in his mail the next morning. This method somehow proved more effective than Stanton’s heart-to-heart talks had been and the standard of the paper went steadily up. Carroll’s English had never been the best part of him, and his first edi torial almost broke the heart of Blair, who was editor of that night, and who, though a sophomore, had ideas of his own as to style. The sentences were short; moreover, they were all constructed alike and Carroll had solved the question of paragraphing by placing every sentence in a separate paragraph. Now Blair worshipped Carroll for reasons other than rhetorical, and he labored for half an hour to improve the tone of the editorial for the credit of his chief. When Carroll dropped in, about eleven o’clock, he read the proof the revised editorial, making no comment but restoring it to the exact shape in which it had first been written. Blair reported this fact to the other editors and no further attempt was made at the improvement of Carroll’s diction. Carroll, however, understood, and he took his editorials thereafter to one of the faculty members of the chapter for revision. The college had watched with interest the change of management in the Daily News and secretly wondered how Carroll was doing it. By and by a rumor became noised around that the editor-in-chief was practically a figure-head and that the real force which dominated the paper came from the managing editor’s chair. These rumors could not be traced to Molloy; in fact, he denied them emphatically more than once and thereby gained a reputation for generosity and loyalty which had previously scarcely been his. Carroll seemed not to hear these rumors. If he did they only redoubled his vigilance and the whole Board seemed to vibrate with the effort which its members made to keep up the pace set by the editor-in-chief. Many be lieved that Stanton’s hand had not been entirely removed from the helm, but when the Senior class graduated and the fall term opened with Carroll’s class at the head of college affairs, the course of the paper went on un changed. About eight o’clock one November evening Carroll came into the com posing room of the printing-house and found Blair, the editor of the night, in the last stages of anxiety. When ha saw his chief the boy breathed a sigh of relief and threw down the pen with which he was correcting the proof that lay before him. “ I’m mighty glad you came in !” said Blair, “ for I oughtn’t to stay any longer tonight and I haven’t been able to find anyone to take my place. I ’m up against a re-examination in analytics tomorrow, and — ” “ A ll right,” said Carroll, cutting short his explanation, “ I’ll look after it.” He had an engagement that night himself, but a feeling of deep sympathy

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for anyone who had to face a re-examination in analytics kept him from hesitating. Then he added: “ What have you for tonight?” “ There’s the dean’s reception,” said Blair. “ Molloy has written that up already. Then there’s the Trustees’ meeting and an article on the college registration. They’ll about fill the outside pages. Then there are the edi torial and the notes and notices for the inside. I guess you’ll have almost enough. Molloy may be up with some late stuff, too.” “ A ll right,” said C arroll; “ run along now.” He took off his dress coat and sat down at the desk with the proof stretched out before him. Then, after Blair left, he rose and went to the telephone and spent a few minutes there persuading someone to save him a few dances after eleven o’clock. He had been at his work only half an hour when Molloy came in. “ Hello, C arroll; what are you doing here ?” he asked. “ Blair had to quit,” Carroll answered. “ Can you stay? I have a date I’d like to keep.” “W hy, no, I’m sorry,” Molloy answered quickly. “ I can’t stay tonight. It’s not my business, anyhow.” He offered no reason and there was a moment of silence, during which he gazed intently over Carroll’s head and then he added: “ There’s really no need for anyone to stay late tonight. There’s plenty of matter and the only thing that happens tonight is the dean’s reception and I ’ve written that up already. I have the list of the reception committee and the names of those who are certain to be there and everyone knows what will happen. It’s always the same, every year. You ought to be able to lock the forms up in an hour.” Carroll looked at him in surprise. “The forms can’t be locked till twelve o’clock,” he said quietly; “ that is, not if I know it. If you can’t stay or find anyone to send up, I’ll stay, though it’s not my business, either.” He bent over the proof again and Molloy, after one look at him, said, “ Good night,” and went out. Carroll finished the proof-reading by half past nine and by ten o’clock the paper was pasted up and the forms were ready. “ You can print the two inside pages, I guess,” he said to Casey, the press man, “ and the two outside ones are ready, also, but they can’t go to press till twelve o’clock. Something might happen, you know, and we can’t let the town papers beat us.” Carroll sat down again in the hard little chair provided by the courtesy of the printing company for the editor of the night and began to think of his broken engagement. He wondered if she would understand. There was no longer any chance of telephoning her, and there was nothing to do but wait and think. He never for a moment considered the possibility of leaving his post; the thing which Stanton had insisted on most strongly in the talk which was now one of the most vivid memories of Carroll’s life had been the danger of a too early closing of the fdrms. He had made the News what it was by following Stanton’s rules as though they were the Ten Commandments, and he did not intend to break them tonight. A t eleven o’clock he was roused from his reverie by the sonorous voice of Casey.

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It you plase, sor,” he began apologetically, “ the paper sames to be riddy, sor, and I have a special rayson for wishin’ to be home airly tonight. You see, sor, they’re— they’re— twins at our house and Mrs. Casey nades me advoice and assistance. So if you’re willin’, sor, I can just run off the last two pages and we can all go home comfortable loike. The other gintilmin niver stay this late, sor.” Carroll looked at him dreamily. “ I ’m very sorry, Casey,” he said, “ but I can’t let you have them just yet.” Casey moved away, grumbling, into the gloom of the composing room, and Carroll began to think once more. He did not believe heartily in Casey’s twins, and yet they worried him and they insisted in some curious way in coming back to his thoughts and finally they went with him into his ’sleep. He awoke with a sensation of cold and with the noise of the outer door banging, and as he looked up he saw Molloy’s face, white and strained, coming out of the darkness of the outer office towards him. He jumped to his feet. “ W hy, what’s up?” he asked. Molloy sank into a vacant chair, breathing hard after his run up the long flight of steps. “ Has the paper gone to press yet?” he gasped. “ No,” answered Carroll, shortly. “ Thank heaven,” Molloy said fervently. “ I ’ve been trying to get you on the ’phone for the last half hour but I couldn’t seem to reach you, so I came out. The dean’s dead,” he ended abruptly. Carroll stared at him. He was hardly awake yet and the news seemed only to irritate him. “ How did you find out ?” he demanded. “ Oh, I was in town,” Molloy answered. “ I was passing the dean’s house and saw the place all shut up, so I stopped and inquired. He dropped dead of heart failure in the middle of the reception.” Then he added, looking tenta tively at his companion, “ I think we’re the only ones that’ll have the story.” Carroll checked the expression of disgust that had almost passed his lips. He had forgotten even the News for the moment and was thinking only of the dean, who had been one of his own chapter and was, besides, the patron saint of the whole college. “ Molloy,” he said briefly, “ we’ll have to tear out the two-column story of the reception and fill the space with an account of the dean’s life.” “ But where can we get the details at this time of night?” objected Molloy. “ Oh, I know them pretty well,” said Carroll, and he sat down and set to work, paying no more attention to Molloy, who stood for a moment, feeling a little awkward, and then went over to the table where the forms lay and broke the news of the necessary change to Gibbons, the type-setter, who received it with gloom. Presently Carroll joined them. “ Gibbons,” he said, “ the inside pages will have to be reprinted. The News must have an editorial tomorrow on the dean’s death.” Gibbons raised his hands in horror. “ W e can’t do it, sir, not at this time of night,” he said. “ W e won’t be out of here till six in the morning at this rate. And, besides,” as a bright thought struck him, “ we haven’t the paper to do it with, sir.” ^ “ Break open the door of the stockroom, then, and get it, please,” replied Carroll, as he turned on his heel. “ I l l be responsible to Mr. Dunn.”

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In the midst of his surprise Molloy found time to laugh at Gibbon’s face as he and Casey discussed the new turn of affairs, but though Casey almost wept over the twelve hundred spoiled sheets of paper, the stock room was broken open and the new sheets made ready. Molloy walked over to Carroll and began, hesitatingly: “ Say, Carroll, would you like me to write the editorial while you’re get ting the life up?” Carroll leaned back in his chair and stretched out his arms. “ Thank you, Molloy,” he replied, “ but I’ll write the editorial. It’s the business of the editor-in-chief, you see. Don’t wait if you want to go,” he added and then he was lost again in his writing. Molloy said nothing, but there was a curious humility in his attitude, as, without disturbing his chief, he softly lifted the sheets of manuscript one by one and carried them over to Gibbons as Carroll finished them. A t one o’clock Carroll started on his editorial. He had been afraid it would not be an easy task, but the thought of the dean, lying cold and still in his darkened house, with his life-work unfinished, seemed to act as an inspiration and he wrote simply and directly what he knew the college would think and feel. He did not consider greatly the form of what he was writing, but Molloy, as he read it over, knew that it was the best editorial the News had ever printed. Carroll sat staring absent-mindedly before him for some minutes after he had finished and wakened from his trance only when Molloy brought him the proof of the news article with a query as to one of the sentences. “W hy, Molloy, I thought you had gone,” he said. “ Oh, no, I ’m still on deck,” Molloy replied, with a tone in which bravado was mingled with something else. “ It’s the business of the managing editor to see that the news gets set up in the right shape, you see.” Carroll smiled. “ That’s really the business of the editor of the night,” he said. Then he added. “ W e can’t be much good, Jack, for it seems to have taken both of us to fill Blair’s place. But I’m glad you stayed and as long as you did, we might as well see the thing through together, don’t you think so?” Molloy looked at his watch, but it could not have told him much, for he had forgotten to open the case. “ Y es,” he said, “ we might as well.”

THE RETURN By

il l ia m

G raves,

Ohio State

’9 3

In the study where Farwell and Rogers were at work the crimsonshaded student lamp made a bright circle of light on the table and left the rest of the room in shadow. It was very still. Only the fire crackled or a page rustled crisply as it was turned. Sometimes the lamp bubbled sud denly and loudly, and each time it did so Farwell lifted his head and looked at it curiously, as if he were trying to find why it made the gurgling noise. Presently he pushed himself back from the table, and, getting up, walked across to the window where, with his face close to the glass, he stood, staring into the velvet blackness of the November night. It was beginning to rain outside, with a heavy pattering drip that beat the last dead leaves from the elms in the yard. Now and then the wind

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flung a sudden swirl of drops against the window before it went sighing off down the avenue. Farwell gave a kind of shiver, though he was not cold. “ Gad,” he said, “ this is a cheerful night.” He turned and looked at Rogers, but getting no reply, he came back and stood with his back to the fire. “ W hat makes it so still around here?” he asked, fretfully, “ Y ou ’d think this was a home for deafmutes instead of a fraternity house. Where is everybody tonight, anyway?” His roommate looked up a little impatiently, his pencil poised above the intricate mathematical symbols with which he was covering the paper before him. “ Gone to that dance out at Clifton. They won’t be back till two o’clock. Y o u ’d better bone while you have a good chance.” He went back to his problem; but he glanced up again long enough to add, “ Meredith didn’t go, of course. H e’s in his room. He never does go anywhere since Kent died.” Farwell moved restlessly before the fire. He started to speak, checked himself, and then broke out, “ Say, Rog, listen a minute, won’t you? I ’m worried about Merry. H e’s making himself sick fretting about Kent. You know he won’t take another roommate, and he goes ’round looking so lonesome and lost that I could cry for the kid. And he doesn’t laugh any more. Do you hear? Think of Merry not laughing for weeks. It’s not like him, and it worries me. I’m afraid he’ll get sick.” Rogers laid down his pencil, pushed the green shade back from his eyes, and looked at Farwell thoughtfully. “ It’s not much wonder, Peg. I do not believe any of us knew just what friends Kent and Merry were. You know they were hardly ever apart. I used to think they were even coming to look alike, they were so much one in their ways. I ’m most awfully sorry for Merry. Say, Peg, go over and see what he’s doing, won’t you? I simply haven’t got the time.” Farwell stepped out upon the gallery which circled the second floor except where the broad staircase came up from below, and from which all the rooms opened. A s he walked down towards Meredith’s study, he glanced over the railing to the great room below, now all in shadow save for the red glow from the fireplace at the farther end. The hall clock was sounding ten in slow, mellow strokes of its gong, and there was a faint answering vibration from the piano, barely audible. A t the door he hesitated a moment, leaning his big shoulders against the panel. Then he turned the knob and went in. The study was dark and chilly. Farwell stood by the door. In the silence he could hear the wind-blown rain stream against the glass. “ M erry,” he said, softly, “ are you here?” In the sleeping room beyond the study some one moved on the bed. Then Farwell heard a faint voice: “ Is it you, Peg? Come in here, won’t you?” He felt his way across the study and into the sleeping room. On the bed he could make out a slim figure, flung face down across the white counterpane. He sat down on the edge of the bed and put an awkward but tender hand on the boy’s tumbled hair. “ Merry, you mustn’t do this. Y o u ’ll take cold here. Come and go over to Rog and me. The rest of the fellows are out.”

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For a minute Meredith made no answer. Then— “ Oh, Peg, Peg, I can’t go on this w a y ! I can’t do i t ! I ’ve got to quit and go away. I’ve got to leave you all, hard as it i s ; but I'll go crazy if I stay here where he was. I can’t study or sleep— I make the other fellows wretched— Peg, do you know it’s just a month today since he died? Oh, if only I could see him once! G od! I wouldn’t ask anything else. I believe I’d be all right then.” He sat up suddenly and gripped Farwell by the arms. “ Peg, do you believe they ever come back? Oh, he would if he could. Kent knows— .” He broke off shuddering; but in a little while he went on more quietly. “ It isn’t fair to all of you for me to feel this w a y ; you’ve all been ever so good. But everything reminds me of Kent, and the fellows do things with out thinking. You know that little old English song Kent was always play ing, “ Drink to me only with thine eyes” ; well— the other day when Benson started up that, I ran up here and stopped my ears. W hy that was Kent’s, Peg; they oughtn’t to play that, and only yesterday, Ferguson came in here hunting for a cap and snatched up the little black he used to wear— ” He dropped back on the bed. Farwell did not know at all what to say; he could only sit there in the dark and stroke M erry’s hair with his big, kind hand. A fter a little he got up quietly and went back to his own room, where, without a word, he lit a pipe and sat down to his work. Rogers looked at him curiously once or twice, but asked no questions; and for nearly an hour there was again no sound, except of the fire and the rustling pages and the beating rain outside. The clock down in the hall struck eleven, slow, sweet, deliberate. The two men, immersed in their work, did not hear it. But suddenly both sat upright, looking at each other. “W ho’s at the piano?” demanded Rogers, under his breath. “ Shut up, will you, and listen.” Farwell’s voice sounded strange to him. The air was trembling to a faint, hollow music, muted and eerie, but distinct enough. It came from the piano down in the hall— the empty hall. As they listened, it began to take form ; an air began to beat in upon their bewildered senses— “ Drink to me only with thine eyes— ” Rogers put a shaking hand upon the table. His eyes never left Farwell’s. “ And I will pledge with mine— .” The sound died away suddenly. There was no more. Farwell leaped to his feet and opened the door; Rogers was at his shoulder. They stared down into the empty shadows of the room ; as they looked up again they saw Meredith just outside his open door, his hands thrown back clutching at the door frame on either side. He was trembling violently. “ What was it, Peg? What was it?” he whispered, sharply. “ You heard it, didn’t you? The music— the song— Farwell glanced at Rogers. Then he spoke roughly. “ Music? I didn’t hear any music. You go into your room and light up. Don’t be a fool, and don’t imagine things. I came out to see what time it is. Y o u ’re all nerves nowadays, Merry.” Meredith looked at him oddly for a moment; then he went into his room and shut the door. Farwell and Rogers went back, too. Farwell dropped into a chair and stared at Rogers.

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W ell, what in the devil!” he quavered. He lifted an unsteady hand and wiped some little drops of sweat from his forehead. Rogers shook himself. “ Now look here,” he said, “ you didn’t hear what you think you did, you can bank on that. W e’re both acting the fool, and I’m not going to talk about this; I ’m going right on with this math. If you’re wise, you’ll follow suit.” M ath ! M ath ! Don’t be an ass, Rog. Help me try to explain this beastly, uncanny thing. Am I in a nightmare, or are we going mad, or what is the matter? Y ou heard that music as plain as I did, and you know it was that tune of Kent’s. Good Lord! What was it Meredith said about his coming back?” “ I tell you, you imagined it, and so did I. It’s all the result of our thinking about the boy. Why, it simply couldn’t have been. You don’t believe in ghosts at this day, do you?” Rogers fixed the shade over his eyes, settled his stocky body to the table, and went resolutely at his work; but Farwell smoked and stared into the fire, and finally fell into a sleep in his chair. A t midnight the two had hardly m oved; outside the rain had ceased and the wind was dying down. Rogers worked on, and Farwell slept in his chair; and presently the clock chimed one stroke. Then the one man closed his books, leaned back and stretched his cramped arms wearily above his head. “ P eg !” he called. “ W ake up and go to bed. It’s one o’clock.” Farwell opened his eyes without moving. Sleep was heavy on him yet. Then out in the hall began again a thin strain of music, like a mere echo, but amazingly penetrating. It was the same air, filtering like an elfin tinkle from the piano. W hile Rogers and Farwell sat silent, they heard Meredith’s door open and quick running footsteps go along the gallery and down the stairs into the dusky hall. The two made for their door; by the time they reached the stairs Meredith was at the piano. In the dull glow of the nearly dead fire they could see him on his knees by the piano bench, his head bowed as if he leaned against someone, and his arms thrown out in a clasp that touched only the air. He was crying and talking brokenly. “ Kent, Kent, I was sure you’d come! Oh you knew, didn’t you, you knew! It’s been hard without you, old man, but now that you’ve come I can get along— ” He let go his clasp and sank into a heap on the floor. Farwell swore softly, and ran down the stairs, Rogers hurrying after. Both were white and trembling. They lifted the boy tenderly, and put him on the couch where he lay pale in his faint until they had rubbed him back to conscious ness. For a little he only looked into their anxious faces; then he said, “ Help me a little bit, boys, till I get to my room. It’s all right now, Peg, I ’ll never be blue any more; and I can stay now. You needn’t worry about me again. Thank you both, and good night.” Back in their own room, Rogers and Farwell stood looking at each other without a word. Then Farwell walked to the window. ‘ It s stopped raining,” he said.

Chapter X I V — T h e Sons o f the Star

SONS OF T H E ST A R S A Convention snap-shot of John Cal vin Hanna, Wooster ’81 and George M. Chandler, Michigan ’98.

O SON OF THE STARS F r a n c is W . S hepardson

O, Son of the Stars, I call thee. Those radiant stars— the three Which shine in the light O ’er the diamond bright On the badge Loved by you and me. 349

350

BETA LORE O, Son of the Stars, I call thee. Those symbolic stars— the three Which tell of the might O f Truth and the Right, O f our Love and Fidelity. O, Son of the Stars, I call thee. Those guiding stars— the three Golden and gleaming from Heaven’s height, Pointing the way in the darkest night To the paths of destiny.

T H R E E C A L IF O R N IA N S ; W alter E. Dennison^,Ohio Wesleyan ’77, Morris R. Ebersole, Cincinnati ’98 and Ernest Delos Magee, S tanford ’95 on a visit to the StanforB Chapter of which Magee was a principal founder.

O, Sop of the Stars, I call thee. f . Those beckoning stars— the three Keeping ideals ever in sight Recalling vows which anew we plight Stars of Fraternity. O, Son of the Stars, I call thee. Those merited stars— the three, Guerdons of Victory in the fight, Awards from the throne that is great and white Shining eternally.

CHARLES DUY W ALKER

35i

CH ARLES DUY W ALKER First General Secretary; Founder of Beta Theta P i

Virginia Military ’69, the first General Secretary of Beta Theta Pi, the founder and first editor of Beta Theta Pi, was born in 1848 at Winchester, Virginia. He was the eldest son of the Reverend Cor nelius Walker, an Episcopal clergyman of note. He entered the Virginia Mili tary Institute when about fifteen years of age and was at the head of his class during his entire course. He was with the cadets in the famous battle of Newmarket in the days when it was said that the Confederacy was “ robbing the cradle and the grave” to recruit its rapidly vanishing forces. His name is on the “ Virginia Mourning Her Dead” monument on the edge of the parade ground at V.M .I. While still a student in the Institute, at the request of General Smith, the superintendent, he wrote a memorial volume of the V.M .I. cadets who were killed at the battle of New Market. A fter gradua tion he was an assistant professor at the Institute for two years and then became a teacher at the Episcopal High School, Alexandria, Virginia. He decided to study for the ministry and entering the Episcopal Theological Seminary at Alexandria, he graduated there in 1875. That fall he married Miss Bessie Zogbaum, of Germantown. In the fall of 1875 he was orC harles D u y W

alker,

BETA LORE

352

darned and became rector of the Church of the Ascension at Amherst Court House. H f p e d there in 1877 of typhoid fever. He left a daughter, Mary Walker, wh# married Mr. Charles Dallam of Henderson, Kentucky. During his later years he always wore a set of gold shirt studs, presented to him by the officers of Beta Theta Pi.

GO VERN OR LOW DEN

THE BETA CRUSADERS B y F rank O. L

owden,

Iowa â&#x20AC;&#x2122;85, W ar Governor of Illinois

This war is revealing the innermost character of men as nothing else has in a half century. The two most marked virtues called for now, are loyalty to ideals and a sense of the brotherhood of man. It so happens that these are the two things that the college fraternity has sought to plant deep in the hearts of its members. There should be no surprise, therefore, that fraternity men should be found conspicuous in every branch of our military service. I have visited many of our camps, and many fine, upÂ standing, clear-eyed fraternity men are to be seen on every hand, and I have been proud to know that Betas were not the least among them. I f with any of us the ideals of our fraternity days have become at all dimmed,

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BETA LORE

354

we should visit these camps and see how brightly those ideals are shining in the eyes of these, our younger brothers. Good luck to these young crusaders in a cause, the idealism of which Prussian autocracy cannot even understand. (A World W ar memorandum)

E A R L Y ALU M N I C H APTE R A T MEMPHIS In a letter written from Memphis, Tennessee, June 30, 1867, by James P . Coffin, North Carolina, ’59, to his classmate, close friend and chapter

comrade, Stephen Croom of Mobile, is the following interesting account of what may have been the first organization of alumni in Beta Theta Pi. Coming so soon after the close of the Civil War, it recalls Justice H. H. Lurton’s story of the first meeting of the Cumberland chapter after that war, some of the brothers having worn the blue when the majority wore the

JA M ES P. CO FFIN , North Carolina ’59 Organizer of the South Carolina chapter in 1858.

“ There members o ciation her ourselves i which we call the ‘Memphis Chapter of the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity.’ We have as yet adopted no definite plan of action but: intend to make it a sort of, mutual benefit affair. We have met several times and I enjoy the evenings very much indeed. Seven or eight different chapters are repre sented in our organization; two from Pennsylvania, some from Lebanon, one from Columbia, one from Virginia Beasley and myself from our old chap ter. A t the last meeting a resolution

DON FRANCISCO STUARTO

355

FROM B E T A TO BETA The Nev,' York Times Book Review for Sunday, June 28, 1925, printed the following lines written by the/'late' William Herbert Carruth, Kansas ’80, to James T a ft Hatfield, Northwestern ’83. They were sent just before Professor Carruth died (December 15, 1924) : F

rom

e t a to

eta.

When you have got the word that I have passed Beyond the reach of message and reply, Like any letter in the days gone by From me alive, this greeting comes— the last And while the outworn organism is cast Into the cleansing furnace, deathless I, O friend, am somehow in the spirit nigh And hold the lifelong bond of friendship fast. When suddenly a candle is snuffed out The light seems lost to our imperfect sight, Y et are its rays diffused in space about Through endless years, high above day and night Thus the heart-throbs that mortally have thrilled In all eternity remain unstilled. Faithfully and affectionately, W . H. C.

DON FRANCISCO STUARTO (M i Jefe.) To Kenyon ’ 1 6 Born 1at Wyoming, Ohio, May 2, 1891, Killed at his ranch near Tampico, Mexico, May 17, I924 Affectionately known among his native employees as “ Don Francisco (mi je fe ).” F

r a n c is

a m il t o n

S tuart,

Hi, you there in the States where life is light, Prepare! I ’m coming H om e! M y fields are plowed in long, straight ranks of rippling brown; M y corn is in ; M y herds graze calmly in the morning cool, The silver air is thin, Sharp-tingling in their wet, black-velvet nostrils, deep in the grass; M y calves are dotting all the sunlit range; The yucca-lilies blow High proclamation of Earth’s wildering lavishness In Mexico.

And so I’m coming H om e! The breeze is north.

356

BETA LORE My quickening corn is in ; A ll’s peaceful on the range, Still and in order, beautiful to see. . . . . Hard won? A ll yes— but then, life smiles, somehow, On him who’s lured by odds O f distant justings, far-glimpsed eldorados, wastrel turns of Fate, That, once behind, may thenceforth be foreot I Y et held Inalienate B y subtler witcheries upon the early heart, That fail him not. So Hi, you there in the States where life is light, Hail your Conquistador! Y our Marco Polo, from Cathay; your Gipsy, off on another jaunt; Y ou r Don Francisgo Stuarto (mi jefe) Le Cid, Is coming H om e! To claim a wisted halcyon-day: O r stay . . . . or wander on. W ho knows ? . . . . Who shall gainsay the course of a Don Whose cattle g raze; whose corn Hope-planted ’gainst the reaper’s blade, Is in; Whom Home has called? . . . . I com e!

This unusual poem in memory of a Beta was written on May 24, 1924, by his brother-in-law Ralph A. Kreimer, Cincinnati ’ 10.

T H E BAIRD FUND Primarily the Baird Fund is an endowment for the fraternity magazine Beta Theta Pi. It dates from the White Sulphur Springs Convention of 1918. The Convention Minutes record: “ Francis W . Shepardson, Denison, was requested by the Chair to make a report on the magazine, Brother Shepardson stated that his written report was not prepared but that he would furnish one at a later date. However, he proceeded extemporaneously and talked generally about the magazine, and, among other matters referred to, he suggested the establishment of an endowment fund, memberships in which to be sold at $10.00 each, with life subscription to the magazine, the principal and interest of said fund to be used for the general purposes of the fraternity. He pointed out in detail the benefits to be derived to the fraternity from being placed in a lifelong relationship to its magazine.” The Committee on Constitution and Jurisprudence of that Convention, in its report, included the following paragraphs: “ It is further recommended by your committee that, under the provisions of Article V I, Section 3 of the Constitution of Beta Theta Pi, an Endow ment Fund be established; and, further, that the Board of Trustees be ordered to consider the details of organization and administration of such

THE BAIRD FUND

357

fund and report its recommendations to the next General Convention of the fraternity; and, further, that if the Board of Trustees determines, after investigation, that a life subscription to the fraternity magazine may be accepted for the sum of $10.00 or any other designated amount, said Board shall be authorized to accept the amount specified by it from any member in return for said life subscription ; and it is further recommended that this Convention instruct the several chapters of the fraternity to consider,

GOVERNOR GEORGE HOADLY, Western Reserve ’44

during the time between conventions, the desirability of requiring from each initiate into the fraternity an endowment fund fee of $10.00, and that the several District Chiefs be urged to encourage early discussion of said proposed endowment fund in chapter meetings, district reunions, and other fraternity gatherings, and that the conclusions of the various chapters be returned to the General Secretary.” The publication of these recommendations in the Convention Minutes brought in seventeen unsolicited subscriptions to the new fund; as yet un

35 $

BETA LORE

named. Three came in quick succession from George Moseley Chandler Michigan ’98, Robert Mitchell Thompson, Minnesota ’95; and John Ernest Mitchell, Colorado 04. The upper classmen in the Iowa chapter showed the right spirit, nine of them enrolling: Sam Radclifjfe Allen, ’22 5 Robert Ankeny Brown, ’22; James Marlette Chamberlin, ’23; Stephen Morley Gamble, ’22; John Hale, ’22; James Ronald Hughes, ’22; Hiram Grant Jeffery,’ ’22;

GOVERNOR O LIVER P. MORTON, Miami ’47 Indiana’s famous Civil W ar Governor was a moving spirit in founding the De Pauw, Indiana and Wabash Chapters.

Harold Herman Reinecke, ’22; and Richard Eugene Treynor, ’22. Some of the Charleston, W est Virginia, alumni caught the spirit, checks coming in from James Thompson Crane, Ohio State ’06; Ernest Martin Merrill, Deni son ’99; John Stickney Shepherd, Union ’ 12; Louis Oscar Smith, West Virginia ’02; and Herbert Earl Stansbury, West Virginia ’ 10. Reporting these subscriptions to the Swampscott Convention of 1919 Editor Shepardson designated 90 members of the fraternity, living and dead,

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to be represented in the new fund by ten dollars each paid into the treasury of the fraternity by him for such a purpose, this $900 being the net profits of the magazine for the year just closed. A s president of the Board of Trustees he made the following statement on behalf of that body: “ For more than a year the Board has been con sidering the suggestion made at the last general convention, that the fra ternity magazine be furnished to members for life on payment of ten dollars for each subscription, and that, in the future, each initiate be required to pay a fee of ten dollars to Beta Theta Pi, in addition to any initiation fee de manded by his chapter, such payment constituting him a life subscriber to the magazine. The subject has been studied carefully from many viewpoints, both as a detached plan and as part of a far larger scheme of fraternity endowment. The thought of having, some day, a fraternity magazine to which each member of Beta Theta Pi is a life subscriber makes strong appeal to the imagination. The development of a permanent fund, one day to be so large as to afford income for wider activities than were proposed, strikes the fancy and stimulates fraternity zeal as well. The Board now recommends to this Convention that such life subscription be established; that the necessary amendments to the Laws of the fraternity be made to provide for the different types of subscription mentioned above; that all moneys received for such purposes shall be kept in a separate permanent fund, whose interest only shall be used; and that this fund shall forever be known as the ‘Baird Fund/ in lasting memorial to William Raimond Baird.” These recommendations of the Board were followed by the Convention. When the committee report was presented, providing for the legislation needed to establish the fund, there was a lively discussion of a most opti mistic character, and then it was moved that, because of the epoch-making nature of the action about to be taken, a roll call of the chapters be made. This was done, amid great enthusiasm, the vote being unanimous. The Fund had not been in existence long before the memorial feature began to loom larger than the life-subscription idea: that is, that approxi mately fifty cents a year of interest would come to the fraternity for each subscription, even long after the death of the subscriber— perhaps for cen turies. That led to a good many memorial subscriptions in honor of Betas who are dead. The possibilities are suggested by a note in the advertising circular of an Illinois college under the heading, “ A Farmer WTho Lived Forever.” It read : “ An American boy, son of a well-known college presi dent, studying at Oxford, wrote to his father as follow s: “ ‘Y ou will be interested to know that I am sharing in a scholarship that was given by a Yorkshire farmer more than 1,000 years ago. I am the two hundred and twenty-fifth to receive this benefit.’ “ That farmer was a wise man. He believed in education. He believed in projecting himself into the future in the making of useful citizens. He realized that those who live for themselves live little lives, while those who live for others find their place among the world’s immortals; for the more we give the more we live. He lives forever in the hearts of men whose lives were enriched by his generous gifts. “ To live in hearts we leave behind Is not to die.”

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A t the convention of 1927 the General Secretary reported that the amount in the Baird Fund had passed $101,000. New memberships and income addi tions will increase this Fund each year by about »$i2,ooo.

O W E N D. Y O U N G , St. Lawrence ’94 Generous patron of his Alm a Mater and a moving spirit in the building of the Abbott-Young Memorial Temple fo r Beta Theta Pi.

361

HARBOR SONG

HARBOR SONG P ercy B ayard C och ran ,

Bethany

Let go the anchor and hoist the light, For we’ve finished another great cruise; W e’ll ride in the harbor and ask the three stars To compute what we gain or lose; And send up a man, with an eye, to report Every spar that comes into the bay; For the rest of the navy is due in the roads Ere the heavens shake down a new day. Then hail to the Meet O f the Beta Fleet, And her sixty-five ships of the L in e ! Here’s a health to each sail, be she new or o ld ; Here’s a health to each bark from her peak to her hold; Here’s a health tho’ she’s strong or a tale that is told; Here?s a health to the Ships of the Line, my lads, Here’s a health to the Ships of the Line. For once in the year we must turn into port And account for the work up to date; There is need to confer, and more need to agree, On the things that have furnished debate. There is much to be done in the mending of rents And exchanging important new s; There are orders to draft; there are stores to be shipped; And a lark will be good for the crews. And here on the decks that patrol the main, Though the waters be seething or still, You will find a staunch quota of sturdy, picked men Apprenticed to routine and drill. But after four years of the service is past They scatter and put out alone; And each takes a compass and stands off to sea, In a taut little boat of his own. Then hail to the Meet O f the Beta Fleet And her manifold Ships of the Line : There is never a zone where her sails haven’t blown; There is never a zone where her flags haven’t flown, For the men breast the waves on a keel of their own, W ith the manifold Ships of the Line, my Lads, W ith the ten thousand Ships of the Line.

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BETA LORE There are times when the winds and the skies are kind, And times when the hurricanes how l; But the course has been laid and the way must be kept, Though the weather be gracious or foul. There are Ships that can stand all the strains of the deep, And some that must yield to the game; So pick up the men in the brine and be off, For the Fleet plows the foam just the same. O h ! Now we are here and now we are there, W e’re at work, or at rest, or at play; But tonight we are sheltered and safe from the storm W hile we sing our wild song to the fray. So make yourselves merry and join in the feast; W e are only together a day. Tomorrow we’ll have to grip hand into hand And silently sail away. Then hail to the Meet O f the Beta Fleet And her sixty-five Ships of the L in e ! Here’s a health to each sail, be she new or old; Here’s a health to each bark from her peak to her hold; Here’s a health though she’s strong or a tale that is told; H ere’s a health to the Ships of the Line, my lads, A health to the Ships of the Line. (Convention Poem, Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota, 1902)

BROTHERS AS C H APTE R PRESIDENTS Three unusual instances are recorded in the fraternity annals of a suc cession of brothers as presidents of chapters. There may be others. The Michigan chapter holds the lead w ith : Albert Dykeman Rich, in 1891; Frank Dyckman Rich, in 1893; Ben Cornelius Rich, in 1896; William Bar rett Rich, in 1897. Johns Hopkins chapter had three brothers in the executive office, the years of service not being reported: Samuel Seymour Merrick, ’11; William Spedden Merrick, ’ 15; Robert Graff Merrick, ’ 17. In the Denison chapter the record shows: Robert Rothing Weber, in 1914; Spencer George Weber, in 1917; Ford Richardson Weber, in 1921.

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OLIN R. BROUSE, De Pauw ’66 “Once a Beta, always a Beta.”

T H E CAMION C A R A V A N B y G eorge

A m ic k ,

Hanover ’ 17

[This poem was awarded the first prize by the American Field Service in France.]

Winding down through sleeping town, Pale stars of early dawn; Like ancient knight with squire by side, Driver and helper now, we ride— The camion caravan.

II In between the rows of trees, Glare of the mid-day sun; Creeping along the high-way wide, Slowly in lone defile we ride— The camion caravan. |

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III

Homeward to remorque and rest, Pale stars of early night; Through stillness of the even-tide, Back through the winding town we ride— The camion caravan.

OUR YO U TH H. Q u i n n , Pennsylvania ’94 Once more, once more into the fire they go W ith their dreamed and their undreamed deeds of the coming years Put to the chance of a shell or a bayonet’s blow— W ith a smile in their eyes made bright by a touch of tears, And a laugh on their lips they have gone to meet our fo e ! B

rthur

Once more the flag that they love floats proudly on ahead Which never on land or sea has known defeat And the voices that rise from the unforgotten dead Sing the great song that lifts at the marching feet That it ever has flung its fold where freedom led ! Today they fight for a freedom newly born, F or the earth is weary of kings and the spawn of kings, And out of the throes of a world with anguish torn Shall rise a peace no glory of conquest brings, Like the peace that came to the earth on Christmas morn. For this they fight and not for an inch of land O r the dollars wrung from a foe by the cards of state! Thank God he has placed at our helm a steadfast hand And an eye that can look unmoved on the face of Fate And a will that can dare and a heart that can understand! He has sent our best to the world’s last great crusade; They shall not come back till the world at last is fre e ! For the Old World calls to the new, and, unafraid, Our youth go forth to their fame and their agony, For God will judge in the end, and His price be paid! — Beta Theta Pi, June, 1918

Chapter X V — Suggestions fo r Service

TH E F R A T E R N IT Y AS A N ATIO N A L A SSE T R

ev.

Joh n

l a ir ,

D.D., Wabash ’93

Vice-President of Beta Theta P i I have the privilege of conducting a discussion class in the University of Pennsylvania. When we began this year, the boys were asked what they wanted to talk about. One boy asked this question: “ W hy is it, that, though we hear about the “ student move ment’ or student participation in the although we hear about the ‘student movement’ or student participation in the national councils of the various nations of the world, we never hear of the Amer ican student as being back of or inter ested in this or that great condition or action?” O f course, I leaped upon that, because it gave me an opportunity of finding out what those fellows knew about world conditions and then leading them, if possible, to the thing that I have in mind and present to you now— by tak ing the university (or, in our case, the college fraternity), as originally con ceived, and showing these men that they now possess forces which can lead them into a larger participation in the world’s life, forces which are illimitable in their possibilities, once they have been made to function in their larger social relation. W e began, all of us, of like mind gathered together with simple formularies. They represented the appeal to man’s love of the mysterious and the ideal. That appeal was used very soundly, and in each fraternity, in the great words of our mottoes, there was set up a certain programme of ideals which gave us great things to think about and to practice. There is a larger implication. That ministry to the individual group is only a foreshadow of a larger ministry. The fraternity that does not inte grate each member back into the common student life a more enthusiastic member of his whole college group than he was before— has not succeeded. The fraternity that withdraws men, with a sense of exclusiveness, from the all-university interests, and sets them over against the student body with a false sense of superiority, even of snobbishness, is missing its primary human objectives. I wonder whether we realize that we who are older have in our hands the most ductile material in the world, youth, the glowing, enthusiastic 365

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period of life. I wonder whether we might not use that material, ourselves always being in the background, bringing it out of the fellows themselves, and present to our generation and that which follows real evidence of the fact that the college fraternity is a valuable asset of the colleges and of society in general. I f we have a common programme in our fraternities, based upon that which already is the accepted standard in idealism, I think that there is no reason for us to seek a new form of the order. All our ideals are but pin-points in a great blue canopy, pin-points of light that shine through. W hy not let those young men realize that back of that sky there is a glorious transcendent life— a glory that is inexhaustible, of which that star yonder is but a faint witness? For instance, we are teaching our undergraduates that which we ourselves learned and loved to believe in— the glories of friendship. W hy may not we, as we talk about friendship, help them to realize that back of that star is the wondrous glory that we call Love, and induce them to gather into the purview of their af fection and consideration, not only that little chosen group, but all man kind, their little group being really a concrete example of that which lies beyond ? W e teach them that they must be faithful and devoted in their work. W hy not teach them that there is a greater thing, and get them to see what every real teacher tries to get each boy to see— that he is dealing not with so many facts for his card catalogue, but with glimpses of fragments of a universal whole. By a mastery of these incidentals he is enabled to range free and at home in a larger world. W e have in our great mottoes the teaching of a fidelity one to the other, that binds men close together. W hy not get those men to see that this also is but an illustration of that larger courage for mankind which we call faith. I hope I have made myself clear. The idea is, that we shall lead the thought of the boy, the aim and hope of the boy, out beyond the narrow confines of his little group, however dear that may be to him, until he sees that he is preparing for contacts with larger things, and learns to interpret his philosophy in the phrase, simple and sublime: “ I am for man.” In all our fraternities we have the conception of fellowship as supreme, but, gentlemen, does it not seem to be clear, if what I have said be measur ably true, that we are dealing with universal ideals, and that we are preparing our members for contact not only with the men in their immediate chapter in college, but for contact with those things that are food to the soul and the spirit of man in his long and painful journey toward the stars? It seems so to me. Therefore, in every fraternity there ought to be an endeavor to lead youth to apply its idealisms to the conditions and needs that all men face, whether in college or out. I should like to bring that a little closer home. W e live in a time when ideas are organized. A man has a vision and he immediately calls together his fellows. It may be that there is a simple and true thought at the outset, but ultimately that organization may lead to a grotesque distortion. You and I know very well, despite the horrors that have been brought to the world because of the excesses of the Bolshevistic philosophy, that unques tionably in the beginning there beat in some heart a true impulse for equality and for freedom. Y ou and I know well that Mussolini with his Fascismo

n a t i o n 'a l

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has made the same mistake. He has allowed that which was a great conÂ ception for men themselves to go outside into fields which to us are not only illegitimate but exceedingly dangerous. W e have today in America, organized, what is alleged to be a sublime spirit of patriotism. But we have seen that sublime spirit of patriotism under misguided men (this is a personal view only) under the leadership of those who have not the breadth of sympathy and of affection that would enable them to understand and sympathize with all their fellows, we have

JOHN W. NOBLE, Miami â&#x20AC;&#x2122;50 United States Secretary of the Interior, 1889-1893

seen that conception of patriotism become a menace, not because of its danger to you or to me or to any institution, but because it has distorted a very wonderful fundamental teaching. There is a larger field of illustration. The men of our time who are controlling material affairs are very much concerned about what is known as the Youth Movement. W e read all sorts of things about that Youth Movement. A s far as we are permitted to get the news, and we very seldom get the news, we are led to believe that it is a danger, that it means turbuÂ

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lence, that it means rebellion, that it means the overthrow of the existing order, that it means license in every form— even the most shameful. Can wd not realize that that which is springing up since the war arises from a pro test on the part of youth, sent forth to face danger and death, without, upon returning, being given a share in the remaking of a new world order? It seems to me that we can capture that which is only beginning in America, for the reason that we have a great organized body of thousands and thousands of young men who already deal with ideals as fundamental con ceptions of every day companionship, and it is possible for us, having these ideals, so to direct that thought that there will be a real Americanism and not a false one, that will express itself not in narrow terms of America for Americans, but in America for all mankind. I never forgot DeW itt Talmage’s shrewd way of putting it. He said that cry, “ America for the Americans,” is appealing, but it is specious. If you were to carry the principle logically to the very end, “ some day,” he said, “you would arrive at the pearly gates only to have the angels lean from over the battlements of Heaven and say, ‘Out with you. Heaven for the Heavenians.’ ” I believe we deal too much with the fraternity as a problem. I present to you my conviction that the fraternity is not a problem: it is an oppor tunity ! “ No faults,” said a great writer of other days, “have overtaken you but such as are common to mankind.” I wish that my voice had power to range around the world, at least around our American world today, and con demn the outrageous libel upon the high spirits, the love of play and the youthful companionship, that declares the boy and girl of our time to be grossly immoral. It is a damnable lie ! Those of us who are brought into intimate confidential contact with the boy of the time, as we are, know that in his reckless excesses the average boy is only doing as his father did, in stead of as his father says. I have been rebuked recently because I protested in the way the middle aged man is now doing about the short skirts that the girls are wearing. I went to the students in Pennsylvania and I said, “What is there about this question of dress that disturbs you?” And they didn’t know what I was talking about! A fter I explained, one said: “W e don’t pay any at tention to that.” In other words, he was accustomed to it as I was to the balloon sleeves of my youth. “ But,” he Said, “ I don’ t like the paint and powder.” And that is an ordinary, healthy reaction. In other words, the evil influence of modern fashion is not as strong as some of our friends would have us believe. There is still within the heart of youth just what burned in your heart and mine, a glowing idealism, and a true enthusiasm for the things that are worth while. Let us capitalize that. Let us believe in it. Instead of thinking about problems and difficulties all the time, why not go on to something which in our hearts we know is possible, because of what we believe, and what we have already done. W e must make the fraternity “get somewhere.” A man went to a fac tory. It was very busy, and seemed to be doing a work worth while. He asked, “ W hat are you making?” They said, “ W e are making wheels.” They showed him a lot of sizes and told him they were for various machines. “ What are those machines for?” “ W hy they make wheels, as our machines

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do.” Oh, I see. You make wheels to go into machines to make more wheels to go into machines to make more wheels and so on and on and o n !” Some times our job is nothing more than that: around and around we go in our task in the name of all we hold dear, just adding numbers, and keeping the fraternity alive! W e can, if we will, turn our faces to a higher goal and s a y : “ Why, we have had in our hands all the time something that will make a new world

H O R A C E H. L U R T O N , Cumberland '67 Associate Justice United States Supreme Court, 1911-1914.

here— if we can only get our chapters, day by day, as their ideals are set before them, to connect those ideals with the world that includes us all, and waits for leadership.” I have forgotten much of my Latin, but I managed this summer to translate a phrase which runs something like this: “ It is possible for one man’s voice within one hour to compass eternity.” It referred to some great utterance of the Reformers. It is possible within one college genera

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tion to express to our undergraduates the great truths we are thinking about, and dreaming about so that they will never be forgotten, and may become universal forces. Our times are epoch making. W e sometimes feel, before a great storm bursts, an electrical tension on the skin. W e have felt something like that in political epochs, as France seethed beneath the surface before the storm of revolution broke. W e may feel it not only in portent, but also in prom ise— the groaning and the travailing of things until there comes a new birth, that which is the world’s hope. A fte r all, we talk a good deal to these boys, saying, “You are the fathers of the next generation.” Let us tell them what that next generation ought to be, and how it will depend upon their faithfulness to things they now hold dear. In the nations of the world there are almost five hundred thousand students banded together in the World Student Federation. America alone is out of that. In China it is the young man of the time who is dreaming of greater and better China. The same thing is true in India. It is true also in Europe. It ought to be true in America. It was difficult to tell my young questioner why American students were not counted upon in great affairs, but I believe it is because the fathers have not always themselves kept faith, and have left behind them that which in youth was so beautiful and so wondrous. Let us see that our young brothers undergo no such experience. In an important hour of the world’s need, we called our youth to war, and gladly they went. W hy not call upon them for the achievements of peace? A great historian said that he was not afraid for his country in time of war, but in time of peace. I think that it is not a matter of technique: it is a matter of grasped opportunity. If we will not only point out but direct in our young men the idealisms and enthusiasms that are so dear to us, if we can only get these young fellows to realize the great world, I believe that we shall serve our generation far better than we can by merely discussing questions of how this or that local problem might be settled. May I use just another figure of speech? Let us, in the minds of these boys, dramatize Fraternity, spelled with a large F. Let them understand that they are dealing with the star dust out of which new worlds are being made. They are ready for it. Upon the ivied walls of Oxford and Cambridge, upon the lists of those who died for the safety of the world in the great war, you may read not only the names of Englishmen, but of German boys who were students in those institutions. What is even more significant and, we realize this with a thrill, upon similar tablets in the German universities are written the names of Englishmen who, although they died fighting against Germany, had once been students in those great institutions. A fte r the Civil W ar— I was told this by the president of my own fra ternity only last night— in a little university along the border, there met the remnants of a chapter that had been scattered by the call to arms. And the one who told him the story said: “ When we met, there were twelve, and of that twelve, ten had worn the gray and two had worn the blue ; but we met as brothers, and we believe that reconstruction and reconciliation began right there.” Can you and I doubt it? The mystic ties that hold our men together are so wondrous strong, although they may be sometimes delicate as gossamer, that out of the fundamental truths our boys live by will come that which at last will bind us all to God.

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37i

Let us sliow to them that larger relationship. I think it was Metternich who said to a captious group in his country: “ Gentlemen, you are displeased with my thought of world contacts and international relations. Gentlemen, get larger maps!” I realize that it is difficult to teach a boy to see what we see; but we can t r y ! I challenge the Interfraternity Conference, therefore, not to add to its agenda, but to add to its hopes and ideals. Build a common programme that will never, perhaps, take ritual form, but, in each fraternity, by its own ideals and traditions, shall be erected and followed out, to the end that we may unveil to our active brothers those stars behind the lesser stars that shine so brightly for them now. I cannot believe that the old order passes, save in this respect, that it “ ever changes bringing forth the new.” In one of Tourgee’s stories of the Reconstruction period occurs this passage: “ Let us rear upon the ruins of our errors and our follies, over the passions, prejudices and hatreds of the past, a grander, nobler temple than the sun ever shone upon. And all over and through that great temple, from its foundation to its dome, let there be arrayed side by side the virtues, the valor, and the immortal achievements of North and South.” So let us take those spiritual temples in which the souls of our young brethren dwell, and let us set up around them the foundations of a temple great enough to contain them all, of which each shall-be a chapel from whose portals our devotees come forth to pay devotion at one common altar, from that altar to return, each bearing within his soul a holy flame, that shall not only guide his steps, but serve to light the world to larger life. [Reprinted from the Minutes of the Interfraternity Conference held in New York, November 28, 1 9 2 5 .]

A LETTER TO A LEADER A rth u r M

ear

Ray

W arnock,

Illinois,

’05

Jo h n :

Next year when you return to college you will be one of the chosen leaders in the student body. It is quite a handsome tribute that your fellows have paid you in recognizing in you qualities of leadership. I don’t suppose however, they felt they were simply handing you an honor. They undoubtedly expect you to do them a real service. And you well know that college students have a way of discrediting and, hooting leaders who fail to lead. I am writing this letter to help you, if I can, in getting yourself ready to make good. I have seen many hundred leaders come and go. I could tell you a lot about the needs of a real leader, such as integrity, industry, vision, unselfishness, bigness, and so forth, but in this letter I ’ll deal only with something that is possible for you to do in the short summer by way of putting a fine edge on your present qualities. In the first place in order to lead you must look and act like a leader. A drum major is designated by a uniform that is intended to be impressive. You won’t be given a uniform of office, but you will have to show the appearance of a leader. In a democratic form of society we don’t expect

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our leaders to put on airs or claim undemocratic privileges, but it is a fallacy to say that we expect a leader to be “ just one of the common herd.” W e expect him to have virtues not possessed generally by the common herd and we will not forgive vices in him which may even be characteristic of his following. I have seen many leaders fail because they stooped too much. W e want to be proud of our leaders; if we are not proud of them, we don’t respect them and don’t follow them. Recently in a New England college a football player of national reputa tion was elected captain by his teammates. He was a man of loose morals and faulty character. This defect had been tolerated in him as a player, but the students and faculty looked upon it as fatal in a captain and a leader; and so, in spite of the loss to football, they saw to it that he did not return to college the following fall. Y ou may argue until you are black in the face that a leader should be forgiven the same faults that appear in his followers, but we will not have it so. W e expect our leaders to be better than we are— and not only in the field of their active leadership, but in all other respects as well. Don’t mistake m e : this is not an academic theory; I can prove it by many sad illustrations. But you well know that college students are quick to detect a man who has a false front; it is not easy to fool them long. I f you are to preserve the appearancfe of a leader, you must be genuine. I want, therefore, to say something about the development of your inner self during the two or three months that remain before you take up your busy duties in the fall. You have four points to watch: mentality, personality, character, and bodily vigor. A s a leader your mentality will have to serve your needs obe diently in deep thinking and in quick thinking. There are a certain few fundamental principles in all jobs and in all problems. If you know what these are and when they apply, you can always map out a safe course. If you don’t, you will be like the fellow to whom each new problem in trigo nometry looks like a total stranger. Knowing and applying principles means deep thinking. Better get some practice in doing this. Take dad’s busi ness and figure out the reason for everything about it. But also, a leader, different from a recluse who has unlimited time at his disposal, must be ready with his solution when the problem must be met. Most of us after the time for action has passed can say what should have been done; the leader must make his decision promptly. Better practice up on making quick and definite decisions, just as you have to when you are driving a car down a busy street. A capable mentality cannot be acquired in three months. I am thoroughly convinced that in the great majority of cases a leader will be found want ing if his classroom record shows that he has a poor mind or a lazy one. W ith very few exceptions, the youth who has muffed the real job in college — that of getting an academic education— has neither the mental ability nor the sense of values to qualify as a good leader in any other job. But a capable mentality can be sharpened and pointed up by three months of careful training. Your mind is just about ready to flower; you’ll be surprised how it will grow and spread out this summer if you give it a chance. I suggest that you try it out in reading widely in books that you have heretofore thought a little too heavy for you; go to some good shows;

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listen to pleasing m usic; go to church now and then and think about the problems of religion and m en; cultivate the acquaintance of older men whose conversation will be interesting because it is full of meat and sauced with brilliancy and sprightly thinking; and also take out some time for quiet deliberation. The mind is a fickle thing; if you let it get away with you, it will become uncontrollable; if however, you swear by all that’s holy that you are going to make it work for you, you will find it docile and servient enough. Day dreaming is enjoyable and has produced some fine products for us, but a leader cannot often afford this luxury. M y experience with college students has been that the training they need most in getting ready for a hard job is training in holding the mind to a fixed task without sacrific ing its sprightliness or sharpness. The chances are you already have an attractive personality; otherwise you probably would not have been popular enough to be elected a leader. There may be some question, however, whether it is a well-rounded per sonality. You will have to deal with many types of persons under many different conditions; possibly your personality has had a one-sided develop ment and makes its only attractive appeal to certain types under certain con ditions. The objective that you should aspire to in developing your personality is consistency or naturalness, so that under all kinds of conditions and with all sorts' of people you can attract and dominate by bringing them to you rather than by going too far to meet them. If all with whom you deal get pretty much the same idea of you and like you for pretty much the same qualities, you have a consistent or natural personality and it will be a great asset to you. But if you are of one sort to one man and of quite a different sort to another, according as you think you must cater to their personalities, you will soon be charged with having a chameleon-like nature and people will call you insincere and unstable. If you think you need training in widening the appeal of your personality, there is only one way in which to get it. Get it by practice; this summer make an effort to come into intimate contact with types of people which are unfamiliar to you and experiment in meeting people under conditions that are strange to you. The average youngster will have his eyes opened to his strong points and also his shortcomings by a little mixing of this kind. A man’s character, like his mentality, is not a matter of mushroom growth. Y our character is probably pretty well fixed by this time. You still have time, however, to build up its strong points and reform its weak nesses. And by character I mean moral character of course, but also morale. I have in mind qualities like courage, patience, stamina, and fairness. I might include also loyalty, friendship, and reverence. I have two suggestions for this point. Read biography; choose some well-written biographies of men who appeal to your imagination and admir ation. Also, make it a point to find opportunities of associating with men of your community who are its strong men. Y ou ’ll find that they will both educate you and stimulate you; by watching them you’ll be able to deter mine what strong qualities are like and by forming close associations with them you will have a warm feeling about the heart that will indicate your desire to emulate them. In union there is strength and in union of strong men there is an added sense of strongness.

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I predict that one quality you will discover in strong men is their ability to follow the ball, as we say in football, or to carry on, as the Canadians said in the war. Often the difference between leaders and followers is slight; often it is little more than the leader’s courage and persistence in seeing a thing through to the end. If you discover this about character this summer, you will have done well. Last of all, you should come back to college in the fall in strong bodily health and strength. For an obvious reason, that is expected of football players; the same reason holds good in your case. A normal body condition is the basis of a sane and alert mental condition. In order to inspire confi dence in your judgment, you have got to be able to make consistent deci sions week in and week out. You will not be in condition to do this if the state of your health and your feelings is a variable one. I suggest you undergo a routine of physical training this summer that will send you back to college as fit as if you were to be a halfback on the football team. That is all except one important thing more. You won’t be much of a leader unless you believe enthusiastically and sincerely in what you are lead ing for. The passion that keeps men plugging away at a job is just that. And it is often this passion that keeps them at work long after other in centives have worn out. A s a student leader you are a college leader. Your college must in spire your love and respect and you must feel that the thing it is trying to do is one of the big things in the world’s civilization. You must try to get the vision of it all, as we say. This vision of the task and opportunity of the colleges is inspiring hundreds and thousands of leaders like yourself to keep plugging away at the job. One good way for you to get this vision this summer is to learn all you can about the college of your choice, its history, its past and present leaders, and its hopes and aims. If there are good elements in your college, you will acquire increased respect and under standing toward it if you know what these good elements are and how they came into being. This is the last point I want to make, and in referring to it I am getting pretty close to home. Most of us who have set aside our lives for college work have done so because we have a passion for college relationship and opportunities that surpasses all other incentives that keep us carrying on. Y ou ’ll understand this feeling, too, if and when you have put your heart into your leadership job. Yours sincerely, A. R. W a r n o c k [A letter sent out by Arthur R ay W arnock, Illinois ’05, Dean o f Men at Pennsyl vania State College, to students chosen by their fellows to head college’ teams, organiza tions, and activities.]

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A DISTRICT CHIEF’S CHAPTER T A L K R

aym ond

M. M

yers,

Texas,

’ 15

When you were initiated into this fraternity you were stamped with a name which had been developed to its exalted position through the efforts of generations of men and boys, not only in this university but everywhere. Up to that time, however, you as an individual had done nothing to place it in that position. When you were first honored with the name of Beta Theta Pi you were granted a privilege, and every privilege, every right, carries with it a corresponding responsibility. That responsibility is that you have become the custodian of that name, and should keep its position exalted with the same enthusiastic loyalty that possessed our forefathers as they rallied to the name of Washington. \ The fraternity requires not only your enthusiastic loyalty but also your unselfish service. Each individual shoulder should share its burden accord ing to its ability; and while there must of necessity be fraternity leaders, nevertheless all should take a part in fraternity service. The fraternity leader often has overburdened and therefore harmed himself by taking all of the responsibility, and the remainder of the fraternity have suffered in that they have not rendered their portion of the service. When you con sider your relation to the small jobs of the fraternity you should remember that Calvin Coolidge became president because he chose to do well the jobs that came to him as he was successively state legislator, mayor of a small town, governor, vice-president, and finally president in his own right. This unselfish service results in fraternity leaders; for leadership is not only a matter of brains but also a matter of experience. In order to be a leader you must pay the price in humble service, remembering, that “ Many men worry themselves into nameless graves and a few forget themselves into immortality.” Not only must you give to the fraternity your loyalty and service but you must also help to realize its ideals as a body. This chapter should strive for high scholarship; sound finances; a happy co-operation between this and other chapters of Beta Theta P i ; the securing of alumni interest and as sistance ; and the development of a singing chapter. I insist on scholarship because a failure of scholarship would sound the death knell of this chapter. Just as a soldier guards his health with a knowledge that a failure to do so would subtract so much from the defense of his country, so should a member of Beta Theta Pi guard his scholarship because he knows that the very existence of the chapter depends upon it. Scholarship is vital not only to the individual but to the fraternity. I insist on sound finances because the success of any enterprise depends upon its economic side; and Beta Theta Pi is a business institution and its assets must exceed its liabilities. Group finances resolves itself into the individual finances of each member; and every member who is able should bear his part of the financial burden. I stress co-operation between the chapters because thereby each indi vidual Beta grasps the great idea of the unity of fellowship in Beta Theta Pi and that a Beta in the University of Texas is one with a Beta in Yale. I stress securing of alumni interest and assistance, not because the alumni can help financially but that you may show your appreciation to

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those who have carried on before you and by tying the alumni to the chap ter bring them both back, thus uniting in one body the Beta of the present and the Beta of the past. I stress the idea of a singing chapter for the reason that nothing is so vital to fellowship as music. I believe that the first group of good fellows that ever got together must have celebrated their congeniality with song. Further, it is evidence of loyalty and enthusiasm for Beta Theta Pi. Good group singing is not so much' a matter of musical education as of en thusiasm, desire, and practice. I have discussed your relation to the fraternity and should like now for a few minutes to discuss your relation to the university. You owe a dual loyalty to the fraternity and to the university similar to your loyalty to state and nation, and you, therefore, become a good Beta only by be coming a good student of this university. The most important relation you bear to the university is, of course, connected with education; for it is in this connection that you came to the university. Your work in the university has three objectives: mind training, the practical, the cultural. Much of the work that you do has for its pur pose the training of your mental equipment, somewhat like the training that you give your muscles in the gymnasium. This mental training enables you to cope with any situation that in after life requires the application of brains. In speaking of the practical side of education I have in mind the law, medicine, engineering, and the like. It is the cultural side of education that I desire to stress, for the reason that it is so often overlooked. Education from this point of approach gives a greater appreciation of the finer things of life, such as music, art, literature, and nature, and gives a wider horizon and a broader view. From the earliest times the home has been the social unit in the community. As such it has had a great influence for good on the younger generation. This op portunity is being neglected through the failure of many parents to bring their sons and daughters in contact with culture in the home. If the university gives you that culture which sets you apart from the ordinary man and you take that culture into your homes of the future, the university and your fraternity through you will have performed a great service for the advancement of civilization. Y our life in the university should be varied by a moderate amount of student activities that bring you in touch with your fellow students, fraternity and non-fraternity, men of low and men of high station in life. “ The great est study of mankind is man.” Out of this experience will come friend ships that with Beta friendships will be carried into after years. M ay I impress this in connection with your relation to the university and its effect upon your after life: your preparation should be not for,money but for service, and your endeavor should be to prepare yourself not to make the most money but to be of the most use to your fellow men. I f you do this, money will take care of itself, because it is in this country peculiarly a by-product of service. You can read the life of Roosevelt through without finding an act on his part that was prompted by desire for money; and yet he died a rich man, most of which wealth he made himself. Justice Brandeis once said that he never allowed money to be mentioned in his home.

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I have discussed your relation to your fraternity and to your university. I should like to discuss your relation to God as it affects the development of character. I do not intend to preach. I am not interested now in the question of creed., I want only to say that a faith properly arrived at means contentment and happiness and that faith thrown away now means addi tional difficulty in the future, because sooner or later you must come back. And a simple faith in God makes for clean living, health of body and of mind, and a proper training of conscience that is necessary in the proper de velopment of character. And if you fail in this regard your success in rela tion to your fraternity and in your relation to the university will be of no avail. There are a few simple things that make for happiness: to engage in one of the common occupations of life, acquire useful knowledge, marry, establish a home, bring up children, and worship God. If your fraternity, your university and your spiritual life have brought you to make a success of these things they have made of you a success in life. If not, whatever else you may do or become, they have made of you a failure.

A FRATERN ITY OPPORTUNITY By

d in

ills,

Wittenberg

’80

A response to a toast at the annual dinner of the Cleveland Alumni Chapter, March 13, 1915: Rising to speak in this presence, where I am so well known by so many, I feel rather transparent and not unlike that country woman who, attending the circus, found her way into the “ side show” where she saw or thought she saw a man reading a newspaper through a two-inch plank, and speedily fled saying, “This is no place for a woman like me, with such thin things on.” The most lasting impressions, as a rule, are those of first contact. Leav ing behind the quiet farm home, where my companions and confidants were almost altogether my parents and brothers and sisters, I found myself at college, a stranger in a strange land, and, when later I was received into the fraternity, the impression I first gained of the loyalty and fidelity of its mem bers, one to another, made the fraternity to me, in a very real sense, a sub stitute for home, with that feeling of confidence and security which one rarely finds anywhere else in the world. I have always felt that the frater nity deserved an important place in college life, not alone because of the support which it gives to its members, particularly to those who are attend ing college away from home, but because of the opportunity it affords for awakening in its members consciousness of the necessity of fidelity and loyalty on their part and the constant appeal it makes to them in that regard. As I understand it, our fraternity has always desired that its members should each and all possess two important characteristics: they should be thorough students, and they should be capable of becoming leaders of men. Having this tradition in mind and contemplating some present conditions, it has occurred to me to suggest what seems to me to be a splendid opportunity lying before the fraternity. Whatever may be our views of the cause for which Germany is strug gling in the great cataclysm which now overwhelms Europe, we must witness

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with rapt admiration the ability with which that nation, single-handed and alone, is holding all the rest of Europe at bay. The entire world is at school, observing a gigantic spectacle, fit to excite the wonder of gods and men; and one of the greatest lessons being taught is the value of efficient organ ization. Whatever may remain of the world when the great catastrophe is over will go home from school and set to work, putting into practice the great lesson taught; and if we as a people shall hold our place, and much more if we shall advance, it is necessary that, without delay, we engage in the serious study and practice of efficient organization. To my mind one of the most stupid incidents of our civilization, and one giving strong evidence of the lack of organization and its consequent waste, is the manner in which our young men must choose their vocations and begin life. This event in the young man’s life— the supremest of all— which should be determined with great care and by the aid of expert assistance, is, in most instances, left to pure accident. What does the average young man know of the vocations which the world or the community offers him? W hat can he know of the various kinds of business, of the opportunities and difficulties of each, of the characteristics and qualifications of the in dividual necessary for him to succeed in any business? What means has he at his command of being introduced into the best place for him in the best establishment in the community? Even after spending large sums of money and time on an education, as a rule he is turned loose to blunder into some opening by accident. When I determined to speak to you upon this general subject, I recalled that in the city of Cleveland we have, as it is estimated, from one thousand to twelve hundred lawyers pretending to be making a living, where four hundred good lawyers could easily do all there is to do, and yet the law schools here are turning out from eighty to one hundred new lawyers e.very year to add to the congestion. The condition of the medical profession is as bad, if not worse. What possible justification can there be for this aim less waste of time and money? It may be comforting to know that this condition is not new. Chancing to pick up the Spectator the other evening, my eyes fell upon one of those interesting papers written by Addison in 17 11, in which he deplored the fact that the three learned professions of law, medicine and the ministry were so overrun that the men were fairly starving one another. While it may be some comfort to know that this condition has long existed, it is a sad com ment upon our efficiency that so old an evil should still flourish so abundantly. Looking about for some reliable data on the subject of opportunities in vocations, I found that the data are very limited as yet. Talking with Dr. Howe, president of Case School of Applied Science, he assured me that he has always found the condition such that he could easily place double the number of men that Case turns out, and he understood this to be the general condition as to technology throughout the country. Beyond this, though I have sought information by correspondence and otherwise, I have been unable to find that there are any considerable data or sta tistics from which any conclusions can be drawn on a large scale as to the extent of opportunity afforded by various vocations; but, such data are now being prepared and will soon be available. It is said to be in great demand. Coming, now, to the opportunity of the fraternity, I am aware that a

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great deal that is being said and written on the subject of vocational guid ance is entirely too academic and theoretical to be of practical use, but, applied to a fraternity, which, like a family, is limited in numbers and interest and attention can be centered on a few individuals, the purpose is manifestly practicable. Why, therefore, should not the fraternity provide itself with all available data on the subject of vocational opportunities: why should there not be a committee of splendid men from the alumni, experienced in affairs and acquainted with the various kinds of business, the opportuni ties and difficulties of each, the qualifications and equipment necessary to success, and have this information and advice of the committee available to every member of the fraternity, to enable him to make an intelligent and wise choice of vocation; and, when that choice has been made and he is ready to begin, why should not the committee, through its knowledge of the various establishments in a great city like this, manufacturing, com mercial and otherwise, and through its acquaintance with the officers of those establishments, discover the best opening for the young man and introduce him into a place where, if he makes good, a successful career is absolutely assured? Let me briefly illustrate what I mean by having one’s education built into him: It is related that on an occasion, when Napoleon arrived with his army at a river which he desired to cross immediately, he demanded of his engineer to know the width of the stream. The engineer answered “ My instruments are in the wagon at the rear of the train. I will order them forward at once and upon their arrival I will take the necessary measure ments and bearings and compute the distance.” To which the Little General is said to have replied, “ Give me the width of this stream in five minutes or I shall discharge you on the spot.” Whereupon, it is said that the en gineer, stepping to the water’s edge, drew down the visor of his cap so that, looking across its edge, he could see where the water touched the opposite shore; then, with his head thus poised, he turned until, looking in like man ner across the visor, he saw where the water touched the shore on which he stood, stepped off the distance to that point and announced that the river was so many paces wide. The feat thus accomplished by the engineer is not so wonderful when we realize that all that he did was to apply a simple proposition of geometry, with which every student Of geometry is thoroughly familiar, “A ll of the radii of a circle are equal.” But, what is remarkable about the trans action is the ability of the engineer to devise, instantly— and, as it were, out of the atmosphere itself— the facility for applying the proposition to the problem: and it is this characteristic of some men of always having their intellectual tools with them and being able to deal on the spot with problems as they arise which distinguishes them as successful leaders of men from the rest of us, who always plod on in well beaten paths made by others. Now, if our fraternity shall wisely select its members, with a view to their being thorough students and leaders of men of the type suggested, and shall afford to them the facilities, through information, advice and otherwise, to intelligently and wisely select vocations, and ultimately place them in the most advantageous positions, it can render to the community a most practical and useful service as part of the process of efficient organ ization: and what prouder position can we desire for Beta Theta Pi than

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that it should be the gateway through which leaders of men pass on their way from college to take their appropriate places in the world of ideas and large activities?

SERVING OUR MEMBERS R

alph

il l e r ,

Denison

’0 6

If the American College fraternity system is to continue to justify itself in public opinion, it must, in the not distant future, do something more obviously constructive and realistic than it has done in the past or than in the judgment of the general public it is doing in the present. W hat is college anyhow? Is it a preparation for life, or is it a preliminary sample of life? Growing out of the first conception, we have all the categories of behavior from the silly sophomorism that is a heritage of medieval scholastic se clusion, to the attitude of the “ greasy grind” who knows nothing but books — and knows them only in a monastic manner. Growing out of the second conception, we have such varying categories as the arts college which sincerely tries to introduce young men to the humanistic heritage of the ages, on through such a plan of operation as the Antioch intermixture of books and work, the University of Cincinnati Engi neering School experiments, on to the severely practical laboratory procedure of some of the other engineering schools. W hat is life, after all? W hat for the individual is the successful life? More and more, it seems to me that the measure of it is found in one’s happy and effective adjust ment to one’s environment. T o what extent are our colleges helping young men to learn to think straight, feel right, act effectively? In my judgment, not nearly to the extent that is at least theoretically possible. To what degree this is the fault of the colleges and to what degree it is the fault of the student body, I am not prepared to say. Beta Theta Pi cannot, offhand, undertake to reform American colleges. But Beta Theta Pi can, in my judgment, have a considerable constructive influence upon the collegiate student bodies, and I strongly believe that a by-product of such an influence on the student body would ultimately be a considerable influence upon the colleges themselve§. W hat is a man’s primary responsibility in the world? It seems to me that, everything considered, his primary responsibility is to be economically secure. He is not a very valuable contributing mem ber of society until he has found his own individual economic assurance. The second requisite for the individual, it seems to me, is to find economic security in that type of economic activity which gives him emotional and spiritual happiness, as well as economic assurance. Incidentally, the t w o economic security and emotional happiness in gaining economic security— inter-react to a tremendous degree. M y own work has to do with what is probably the largest sales organi zation in the world. Our 50,000 Curtis boys sell our publications in num bers so great— week after week, month after month, year after year— that

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the figures involved would appear significant if related to the operations of any business corporation in America. A considerable amount of the sales motivation which we exercise with this extremely large group of sales agents is found not in direct pecuniary returns, but in a service which we render to these boys and young men. As one boy himself some time ago put it, “ Curtis work has given me an introduction to the world.” Among a dozen phases of the work is one which, in such a matter as I am here outlining, is of particular significance. For these boys we have a slogan: “ Your customers should be your friends.” Let us look at the significance of that. A boy has a regular route, say, of fifty customers for The Saturday Evening Post. If he has built up that route in the proper manner, it will include some of the leading business and professional men of his town or his neighborhood; those are the people to whom— in the interest of our advertisers— we wish our publications sold; those are the people in his own community with whom contact is most valuable to this boy. He should have on his list lawyers, bankers, educators, retail merchants, manufacturers, etc., etc. To an ever-increasing extent, we are undertaking to have these boys become really well acquainted with these men who represent different lines of economic security. W e are undertaking to “ sell” the idea to these boys that, from time to time, they should talk with these men who represent different lines of economic activity, and from these men gain first-hand knowledge as to the problems, the difficulties, the compensations— pecuniary and spiritual— that are offered by the different types of economic activity. Tw o results are already evident: First, the boy who has followed our program has, when he finishes high school, a pretty clear cut vocational picture of the modern world. Ninety-three per cent of our more successful boys go to college, having already gained a concept of the economic world in which they are living, and in which a little later they must take their parts as men. They carry into college a mental and emotional balance which, I firmly believe, leads them, in a great majority of cases, to take from college far more than does the average college student. They have a sense of economic direction. In the second place, as a by-product of their earlier experience, they usually have— among their former customer friends— several good positions waiting for them when they get out of college. They have a sense of economic assurance. A thirteen or fourteen or fifteen-year-old boy has a route of fifty Post customers. In our own experience we have already proved that from such a limited contact the boy can get a conception of the modern economic world which gives him very distinct advantages. Beta Theta Pi has a great and important group of living alumni. These men represent, probably, every type of human economic activity that exists in the modern world. Further, among them are a considerable number of men who are outstanding figures in their respective fields. Suppose that between now and 1939, these outstanding figures would put on paper something of their point of view as to their individual adjust ment to the modern economic w orld; something of their point of view as

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to the difficulties and problems and compensations— economic and spiritual—* of those lines of economic activity in which these men have had large and broad experience. Suppose that in 1939 Beta Theta Pi should publish a series of booklets built around the thought of self-vocational guidance, and, as related to that, self-educational guidance— a series of booklets written not by pedagogues, but by men who have practiced what they preach— and in their successful economic practice have found also emotional or spiritual satisfaction. There is on my desk, as I write, a 400-page book, A n Outline of Careers. It is an attempt— as far as I have observed in my partial reading of it— to present in a commercial form something of the suggestion contained in the earlier part of this letter. But so far as my reading has yet revealed, it lacks the quality which I believe might be introduced by such a group of men as I have, above suggested writing from the point of view which in this letter I have in mind. If there is one fact which sticks out in our modern world like a sore thumb, it is the tremendously increased complexity of modern life. No where is the complexity more evident than in business. Fifty years ago, we were still a pioneer people. In my own boyhood in Ohio, cloth was still being made locally; shoes were being put together by the neighborhood cobbler, spills were being twisted in our kitchens of an evening to save matches. Today, business is nation-wide. To the tinkle of the Big Ben alarm clock, a citizen of this United States wakes in the morning, whether he wakes in Portland, Maine, or Portland, O regon; Minneapolis or Miami. Not to the tinkle of an alarm clock made in his own community, but an alarm clock made in a great factory which distributes its products nationally and even internationally. He wakes to the tinkle of a Big Ben alarm clock. He takes his bath with Ivory soap. He slips into his B .V .D .’s, pulls on his Hole-proof socks, fastens his Paris garters, lathers his face with Colgate’s shaving cream and applies his Gillette razor. He brushes his teeth with Pepsodent; he slips into a Wilson shirt; puts on his Hart, Shaffner and Marx suit, adjusts a Van Heusen collar and a Spur tie. He sits down to a Grand Rapids table and has brought to him Florida orange juice chilled in a Frigidaire. As he sips his Maxwell House coffee, he glances at his Howard watch, hurries out to his Detroit-built car, finished with Duco; stops for a moment to fill his Dunhill pipe with Prince Albert tobacco, which he lights— not with a home-made spill— but with a Diamond match; steps on his Delco starter, starts flowing the Atlantic gasoline, and in a little while he’s at his office, housed in a structure built of United States steel. He shoots up to the seventh floor in an Otis elevator and sits down at his Macey desk. Perhaps he hears the tingle of a National cash register or the rumble of a Burroughs adding machine. He calls in his stenographer— undoubtedly chewing W rigley’s spearmint and without question wearing Realsilk stock ings— w ho transcribes her notes on a Remington typewriter with Hammermill Bond paper. On his way to luncheon he sends a Western Union telegram that de livers a message of flowers to his mother across the continent. His luncheon he has with the Rotary Club in a United hotel. A fter lunch, since it’s a

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pleasant day, he uses the Bell telephone to make a golf engagement, and in the afternoon at the country club shoots his eighteen holes with a Spalding club. He comes back to his office to sign his mail with a Waterman pen. Then, with the day’s work done, he drives back home and finds that his house is fresh and bright with a new coat of Sherwin-Williams paint, cleaned in side with a Hoover vacuum cleaner, made to glow with Old Dutch Cleanser. He sits down to a dinner, some of the elements of which are Chicago meat, Idaho potatoes, Elgin butter, Del Monte fruits, India tea. A fter dinner— whether he is in Portland, Maine, or Portland, Oregon, Minneapolis or Miami— he puts a record on his Victrola, he tunes in on his Atwater-Kent radio, or he sees a Paramount picture. Then, calling it a day, he goes upstairs, turns on a Mazda lamp, lighted with current supplied by the Cities Service Company, slips into his Simmons bed, pulls up the Fruit of the Loom sheet, and, because it is Thursday evening, whether he is in Portland, Maine, or Portland, Oregon, Minne apolis or Miami, picks up for a few minutes’ relaxation, a copy of The Saturday Evening Post. Then, turning off his light, he drops to sleep to dream of the day when his own business will not only be nation-wide, but world-wide. Obviously, a nation-wide business or a world-wide business must be a big business. You and I— if we live out our normal span of life— will see American business— as contrasted with the American business of twentyfive years ago— revolutionized. The number of business organizations promises to decrease more and more rapidly. The size of business organi zations promises to increase steadily. Business— both by its increasing complexity and by its changing point of view in respect to its obligations— is rapidly becoming a profession. How is the college graduate of 1939 to be prepared for this new and vastly more complex world of business in which he will find himself ? W e have had a plethora of books on vocational guidance by people who have had no first-hand contact with vocations; who have written of busy-ness from the point of view of idleness-— -so far as actuality is con cerned. W e have had a plethora of inspirational addresses by business men who— because they were called on for a message— stepped out of the practicalities of a sound business operation and talked in the clouds. There is, as I see it, a crying need for sound material to aid and guide the countless thousands of selected young men who, in the coming years, will face the puzzle o f their economic and spiritual adjustment to this in creasingly complex world. Beta Theta Pi— through its adult members who have successfully and happily adapted themselves to their environments— can make a contribution which will be unique and uniquely valuable. “ In eleven years, Beta Theta Pi will complete a hundred years of life. How shall the occasion be celebrated?” M y suggestion is that we celebrate it by rendering a service to our under graduate members, to the colleges they attend, and to society.

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SQUARE PEGS IN SQUARE HOLES Guy

H o lm a n ,

Idaho

’08

Dean Jay G. Eldridge, of the University of Idaho, asked me to lead off with an article about the opportunities and requirements for a banking career ° r </0r ° ne foreign banking, after he had read a letter I wrote him saying, “ Once last year when I was lunching with A. J. Priest I remarked to him that I thought it would be a good thing if a fraternity chapter could be a little forward-looking, and assist its members toward post-collegiate voca tions really appropriate to their powers and temperaments. That is to say, if there exists nowhere else in the college a plan for arousing the student’s interest and giving it informed direction along these lines, why mightn’t it be possible to build up a mechanism in the fraternity chapter which would at least attempt a little helpfulness in the business of getting square pegs into square holes? If you combed over the list of Gamma Gamma alumni, couldn’t you pick out at least a dozen who might give the undergraduates the straight ‘dope’ about that many different vocations, in the form of letters ? Then suppose someone wrote them a letter pointing out the particular type of data that would be most useful and inviting a contribution from each one? I should think the chapter might get in return a group of letters at least diverting and possibly quite stimulating. It wouldn’t be expert voca tional guidance, I grant you, but it ought to make the fellows reflect that here is really one more thing that can be either bungled or done right. Will you think it over? And if I can myself do anything to help, I shall be glad to.” “ I don’t propose to stick too faithfully to that exact assignment. It may be that one or two of you entertain thoughts of getting into domestic or (as China hands would put it) ‘homeside’ banking. But I doubt if any of you have thought of trying to become a bank man abroad. There are in any case only two or three American banks which maintain foreign branches at places where conditions necessitate their sending out men from home except to fill the most senior positions. “ It will be beneficial, I think, if you will give me license to go beyond the narrow proposition of foreign banking and to discuss the general idea of going abroad to make a living and find a career. W e shall be getting down to a practical basis then, for I feel sure that aiiy group of twenty or more college students will include two or three who have dallied with the notion of hitting the long trail. Uncle Sam is shrewdly appealing to a very common impulse when he puts on his recruiting posters the slogan: ‘Join the Navy and see the w orld!’ “ First, then, what is there to be said about the not infrequent concep tion of ‘having a look at the world before I settle down?’ If you are one of those who must earn his way as he goes, I should say two things need to be remarked, namely, that nobody can afford to employ you on that basis, and that you in turn cannot afford to be so employed. In illustration: the Philippine Government imported some hundreds of us, college students, twenty years or so ago, to teach the Filipino children the English language and the three R ’s; and by the time we had merely begun to comprehend the technique of our task— how really to help the Filipinos— most of us

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packed up and came home again. W e had our taste of travel out of it, but the people who paid our salaries, I am afraid, got rather a poor bargain. More than that, the great majority of us had in the process invested two 01* three crucial years in activities totally unrelated to and very slightly forward ing, if at all, our subsequent careers. Meanwhile the boys who had stayed behind when we went abroad had already ‘got the jump on us’ ; or it was their own fault if they had not. These, of course, are personal impressions and I am not trying to cram conclusions down anybody’s throat. I merely raise two questions, one ethical and the other practical: Is it fair to take hold of a job with the deliberate intention to leave it presently half finished, and have you the time to ‘blow in’ ? With regard to the second, people seem to feel generally that it is rather more essential now than twenty years agO' to get away at the crack of the gun if you are anxious to run a good race. “ There is another case to be considered, however— that of the man who is thinking of setting out seriously on a foreign career. He tells himself that if he once jumps for it he will see it through, but does he want to take the leap? Well, the great danger here will in most cases be that first things won’t get put first. The romance of foreign lands, the alluring unknown quantities, the whole confounding enchantment of the strange and the remote steal into the foreground like clouds obscuring a mountain. And the moun tain is simply this: What kind of work will the man be doing abroad, and is it a type of work he would intelligently choose and delight in if he were going to remain at home? “ The glamour wears off of foreign residence in say ten or twelve months for most people. A few, with cultivated imaginations and curiosity, keep it alive longer. I remember the ‘kick’ I got out of exploring the bazaars of Bombay when I first went there in 1917, and certain facets of the Indian scene held magic in them for me as long as I lived there. But mainly, after the first few months, I was a bank employee first and a resident of India second. The daily routine pre-empted my attention. It m ust! Figure to yourself that'you put in the eight or nine best hours of the day at your work and sleep away half of what remains of the twenty-four, and meet in your social hours mostly people who talk shop or sports and little else. So, if you are not happy in your main excuse for being there the little adventi tious features of your foreign residence will be powerless to compensate you for the deficiency. “ There is, of course, that ancient stratagem of the human mind to be remembered which the psychologists call rationalizing one’s situation. You go to Afghanistan to be bridge-builder to his majesty the Emir, and discover within three months that your soul takes no delight in building bridges. Thereupon being too stiff-necked to admit a serious misjudgment of yourself, you scout around unconsciously in search of other justifications, such as that Afghanistan has dire need of bridges, that you are doing a pe culiarly useful job in building them, and that, after all, what you really wanted was to be useful. Which is bunk, of course. Nobody wants above all else to be useful. What we want is to be happy. But that trick of the mind has worked marvelous benefits for men in all ages, I suppose. I know I have met more than one missionary in the Orient who has been saved by it. Nor am I so superior as to claim knowledge of no bank men who have taken the same road. But I do suggest that he who, while living abroad, is also

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happy in his work is really the fortunate man, and the one who is a by product of so fortunate a situation will prove the best servant of his kind. “ Missionary work has been mentioned as engaging many who go abroad to live. There is government employment, as well. A young man, for example, may try for the consular or diplomatic service, become a trade investigator for the Department of Commerce, or, as an officer in the Navy, serve on United States warships in foreign waters. Each calling has its special attributes and one’s business is first to find out what they are and whether they harmonize with his individual aptitudes. That the exercise of the calling is to be in foreign lands is really a secondary consideration. “ One further practical point ought to be mentioned. I have watched the progress and personal fortunes of these ‘exiles by choice’ for many years and have seen it happen a good number ,of times— that private circumstances of one sort or another make it imperative or very desirable to give up the foreign field and return home to live. It almost always works out in such cases that the individual must make the transfer at material financial sacri fice. Specialization of functions has proceeded to a point where a man who is immensely useful in China may be merely one of the ruck at home. Friendships and contacts which would have been very helpful if relied upon a few years before have grown attenuated with the lapse of time and offer little assistance toward the finding of new employment. I say these things not to be discouraging but in the interest of open-eyed consideration of the problem. “ Let us leave thus the case of the man who has his eyes on salt water and foreign shores. He is not numerous, although there must in course of time be more of him if America is to build up and maintain international relations suitably complementing our domestic development. For the pres ent, however, most of us elect to remain at home, and some of us in every college group are likely to have thought of banking as a life work. “ I suppose it is measurably true that the great majority of college men who enter upon some kind of banking work— aside from those who merely drift into it or are led that way by family connections, which is much the same thing— do so as a result of a penchant for economic study in college. It is unfortunate, and a word ought to be said against it at the proper junc ture by every college teacher of economics. “ The line of reasoning obviously is that as the banker’s very business is the dispensing of credit and as that is par excellence a function of the economic machine, then surely it is essential that he above all others should be able to weigh the force and accurately observe the play of economic movements. “ Well, that is sound enough in regard to boards of directors and bank presidents, and I am willing to grant that if you go into a bank you may one day become its president or even get on the board. But during that whole process of your rise and even after you reach the Olympian heights you will have been primarily a business man, not an economist, a merchandiser of banking service, not a student of economic forces. In other words, to be trained in political economy is to have only one— and that not the most important— of the qualities of a successful bank man. What would you think of the logic of one who would say: ‘I enjoy rifle practice; a good soldier needs to be a good rifleman; therefore I ought to become a soldier’ ? “ It would be nearer the truth and yet not an extremely close approxi

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mation to it to say that not the student who is fond of economics courses but the student who likes accounting is the one who should take up bank work. A certain flare for accounting is of course a sine qua non in most departments. And yet I am afraid our preconceptions of what bank ac counting consists of are after all ludicrously erroneous. A t any rate, one doesn’t start in by tackling recondite problems in the technology of accounts. I remember my first job was to take an unholy mess of confusing in voices from Manila and try to find out if possible how many thousand cigars a certain firm had really shipped to New Y ork two years before and how many had since been sold. It was like a picture puzzle. Patience and care fulness were the only qualities really requisite for its solution. Several years later— to illustrate specifically how nearly impossible it is ever to break away from the drudgery— I spent a month of night work adding, subtracting, ticking, cross ticking in a set of musty old books, trying to locate just where and when a certain rogue had defrauded us of $20,000. That I was finally rewarded by being able to assign the loss to a period of time during which a certain insurance policy covered the bank against defalcations did not much mitigate the monotony of the work. It merely annoyed the insurance com pany. “ Several college students of last June have lately been lending me a hand, and it may be interesting to remark that the main task they had to tackle was to take red and black ink, pens and ruler, and rule up a variety of forms of which we did not require quantities sufficient to justify an order to the printer. O f such humble necessary chores is a great part of one’s early experience composed. And I have opportunity to observe every day an officer whose emoluments may well run to $35,000 or $40,000 a year, who still (being within a brief span of retiring age) does a deal of prosaic checking and ticking, adding and subtracting in the course of a week. Debits and credits we have with us always, then, and never is a bank man absolved from vigilance to see that two and two makes four. Figures are his medium, in a very large degree. He must feel at home with them— not with abstruse mathematical computations but with sober adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing. There is a type of mind that likes that sort of thing. It will be a comfort to feel that you have it, as you enter bank work. “ It would be absurd, of course, to say that figures are the whole story; else the best statistician would perforce be the best banker. Any college man who has served an acceptable novitiate with the figures and the pen and ink and rulers will find presently that his further progress must probably hinge upon one of two kinds of ability. Either he remains an “ inside” man and as a department head learns to get efficient work out of others, or he diverges into the outside activity of influencing new business toward the bank. Where we deal with branch banking we come upon the position of branch manager, which demands both these qualities. In other words, growth in one’s career depends upon the possession either of administrative and executive ability or of what may in the modern argot be referred to as a selling gift. It is fairly easy, I fancy, for a college student to make a decent guess at his predilection for selling— either goods or services or bank ing connections or what not. An immense amount of study has been given to this great American game of selling and we can’t help knowing a good deal about the kind of person who plays it best. But as to the ability to

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command, to evoke loyalty, to elicit co-operation, the power of managing one’s fellows in the interest of a cause or an institution, I do not think we have so well developed a body of knowledge. I merely want to point out here that if you are to survive in bank work and be vouchsafed opportunities of enjoyably exercising a talent for it, you must carry as part of your bag gage this gift for getting good work out of other people. College activities of the extracurricular sort offer many opportunities for the discovery of such talent. Have you sought such responsibilities and, if so, how have you fared under them? Certainly if you prefer playing a lone hand, or dislike trying to impose your will on other people, or don’t know how to do it in a politic way, you belong in a scientist’s laboratory, or in a poet’s cloister, or in various other places, but not in a bank.”

OUR FRATERN ITY AND ITS WORK (i. Delivered at the Eighty-fourth General Convention, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, July 3, 1923, by Francis W. Shepardson, President of the fraternity..) It is a privilege to look into your faces today, and to have the oppor tunity to talk to you a little while about Beta Theta Pi. Occasions like this are rare in human experience. For each one before me is a selected man. Each belongs to that small group of fifty out of a thousand Ameri can boys who have the chance of a college training. Some of you are members of that smaller coterie of ten out of a thousand who reach the coveted diploma of a college graduate. Each of you, after critical examina tion, has been deemed worthy to wear the badge and bear the name of Beta Theta Pi. Each, again, has been specially chosen for this hour: to share the comradeship, the councils and the conclusions of this great con tinental Convention. What a thought it is, that we represent North America here, Canada and the United States alike, each a selected m an! Each of you has come here with a sincere desire to do a full part, in these days of conference, in building up a fraternity which recognizes mutual assistance in the honorable labors and aspirations of life, devotion to the cultivation of the intellect, unsullied friendship and unfaltering fidelity as objects worthy of the highest aim and purpose of associated effort. I feel, therefore, that as your chosen leader I can come close to your hearts now, and can talk plainly to you in this charmed circle of brotherhood. W e are about to enter our eighty-fourth year as a fraternity. That means that, in sixteen short seasons, we shall commemorate a century of service. According to well-authenticated tradition, handed down to us through our founder’s own lips, it was just at this time of the year that Beta Theta Pi was born. On the Fourth of July, 1839, probably the first informal gathering was held of the incipient organization which was to mark August 8, 1839, as the date, and the hall of the Union Literary Society at Miami as the place, for the first formal meeting. So in this week of American Independence, with special significance then, “W e sing the praise of those who from the night F irst plucked the stars of gold, radiant with light, That radiance, spreading far from sea to sea, Those stars the triad symbol of fraternity.”

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To them, those founders eight, we are indebted for Beta Theta Pi. Their voices have long been silent. But they still live. Live in the spirit of our fraternity, which through some weird necromancy they have handed down to us, their successors and heirs, through the long illustrious line. Even their personalities seem near as we recall the words of Pater Knox fifty years ago, written for the Thirty-fourth General Convention, held at Cin cinnati, December 29, 1873: “ W e were a pleasant company, pleasant to each other at least, and I should greatly like to meet the survivors again. None of them will be at your festival, brethren. Pray remember them when you drink to the absent!” So, in accordance with our time-honored custom, we begin our delibera tions with a toast to our founders, in Major Ransom’s familiar line, “ Here’s a health to Pater Knox, boys, and them of Thirty Nine 1” W e repeat their names once more in this day of national reunion: Jo h n R e ily K nox S a m u e l T aylor M arsh all Ja m e s G eorge S m it h D avid L in t o n C h a r l e s H e n r y H ar d in Jo h n H olt D u n c a n T h o m a s B o sto n G ordon M ic h a e l C la r k so n R y a n

of ever honored memory. A thousand novitiates each year, kneeling before the altar of Beta Theta Pi, visualize them as the founders of their faith. Their ideals live, in constitution and in ritual, in song and in story. Their souls live in our fraternity. In truth the spirits of these eight are more real, more power ful, than when they were here on earth in visible presence. For they have gained immortality, that wonderful, blessed immortality of assured growth and steadily increasing influence, while cycles move. They are with us and watching us today. Here at the shrine of our fidelity and theirs, we hail them yet and ne’er fo rget! “ Full mindful of the earnest love and care That keep eternal watch and vigil there. Nor do they need fair monuments and scrolls, Their memories are deathless in our souls.”

An institution which has flourished for over four-score years must have something of value about it to hold interest so long. This fraternity has come down to us as a precious legacy. W e have a distinct and definite obligation to cherish it, to add to it, and to transmit it to those who are to follow after us in Beta Theta Pi. It is an inspiring thought that idealism persists through the ages. An even finer conception is that of adding to such a treasure to make it more valuable, more potent, to another genera tion. And what is our idealism? W e find it in those familiar and pregnant sentences already quoted from our Constitution, the fundamental law of our fraternity. Upon this constitutional substructure we have built our ritual, rephrasing there some expressions, adding other ideals equally appeal ing. Our bards have sung their sweet songs, enriching our treasure by

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stores of sentiment which have affected powerfully our fraternity activities. Out of experience, as changes have come in college and fraternity condi tions, there have come accretions to the sum total of our idealism. From these seveial souices we have taken our ideals. W e have combined them in a programme of endeavor for Beta Theta Pi, quite well defined in the minds of our members. W e have established clearly recognized standards by which we measure and are measured as we strive for position in life’s tourney. The individual Beta knows full well, whether he approximates the stand ard. The individual chapter, a group of individuals, knows whether its col lective expression is that of the ideal. A recent writer used the title Damaged Souls for a stirring book, describing some exceptionally brilliant Americans who failed in supreme tests. In every chapter there are damaged souls— young men who have taken the solemn oath to uphold as individuals the dignity of Beta Theta Pi, but who, in life and conduct, have fallen far short of expectation, if, indeed, they have not wilfully disregarded their plighted word. But with them are members of the other type— those who catch the vision of the founders, those who hear the voices calling as they kneel at the altar, those who strive to make the idealism finer and stronger to enrich the years to come. How is Beta Theta Pi today treating the legacy of the founding fathers ? Let me call your attention to a few items from the logbook of the fraternity for the college year which has just closed. A District Chief— more than one in fact— reports a chapter whose success is endangered by internal discord. There are such chapters, where cliques exist and blocs of various sort. But a chapter of this type is not a Beta Theta Pi chapter. For the first foundation stone of our frater nity is “ mutual assistance in the honorable labors and aspirations of life.” Something is lacking when an individual takes the obligations of a frater nity, a brotherhood, and then leads, abets or countenances a division in the ranks of those who should work together with that harmony which is the strength and support of all institutions, especially such as ours. Further more, it is not without significance that the ideal of mutual assistance comes first in our triad. W e have been proud of the principle of equality which has marked Beta Theta Pi always. All our stars are fixed stars and all are of the same magnitude. But our literature reinforces abundant personal testimony from older members that this Beta star always shone brightly in the first half of our history. The interest of one member in another, manifested for his improvement and development in every way, was the factor which made fraternity life sweet, which stimulated devotion to sound scholarship, and which, as a natural sequence, made the ties of companionship and trust increasingly strong. Indeed this mutual interest was so magnified in the conception of the early members that they liked to think of everyone in the fraternity as interested in each individual mem ber; the whole fraternity body keeping watch and ward over the fortunes of each Beta. Let us return to this principle and drive from our chapters the destructive discord through which the bonds of fraternity are broken! During the year Beta Theta Pi more than once was made ashamed by reason of the wretched scholarship standing of one of its chapters in com parison with that of competing organizations. In one extreme case the showing was so disgraceful that our chapter was barred from initiating

OUR FR A TE R N ITY AND ITS W ORK new members, and so had its own life stream checked. In other instances, chapters of long standing and honorable records appeared to lose sight entirely of the reason for which colleges were established. A chapter of this type is not a Beta Theta Pi chapter. For the second foundation stone of this fraternity has graven upon it the words “ devotion to the cultivation of the intellect.” What shameful mockery to proclaim such an inspiring purpose for brotherhood and then permit an associated group of presumably selected men to maintain a scholastic standing below that of the average of the heterogeneous company called the student body! How close to sacrilege it is to take a solemn obligation to uphold as an individual the dignity of Beta Theta Pi, and then, by defective scholastic standing, to drag the honor of the fraternity in the dust! But the appeal for our second principle is not made merely to protect the good name of Beta Theta Pi. The individual student needs to be reminded continually that he is undergoing training for future citizenship. The argument is some times put forth that colleges are not designed to produce leaders, but rather to raise the level of general intelligence. But this argument does not apply to those who are selected men. I f no leaders appear, it is reasonable to assume that the selection was faulty. They must make good, or else their claims to superiority are ridiculous. They ought to make good; for the call for leaders is constant and insistent, and brains are needed for leadership. A study of volumes of the Y ear Book of the Fraternity for a series of years clearly reveals that there are quite a number of chapters which play a relatively small part in the student life of their institutions. Year after year they develop no leaders, in scholarship, in literary pursuits, in dramatics, music or athletics. The reasons advanced for failure are the reasons given by cowards and weaklings. “ Our situation is peculiar,” “ Everybody combines against us,” and similar arguments, are confessions of failu re; recognitions of lack of tact and tenacity and of that grit and determination which bring victory elsewhere. Such chapters are not ideal chapters o f Beta Theta P i; for those “ honorable labors and aspirations of life” should begin in college days. Here is a chapter where liquor'has wrought havoc, poor scholarship, internal discord, neglect of business details, and general ‘in-attention 'to fraternity duties accompanying the dealings with criminal bootleggers. Under sharp criticism the chapter discusses whether a rule against drink ing in the house shall be enforced, and barely carries the proposition. A chapter of this type is not a Beta Theta Pi chapter. For the first foun dation stone of this fraternity is inscribed “ Fidelity.” If this lofty ideal does not include obedience to the Constitution of the Nation and to the law of the land, as well as to the minor affairs of personal friendship, it does not have much real significance. Every chapter should be law-abiding and lined up with those who want to keep the college community lawabiding. The chapter letters and papers sent out to alumni in recent weeks have quite clearly reflected the dominating spirit of the individual groups. In several of them appeal for alumni aid in rushing was based upon the argu ment, “ W e must keep our house full.” When such a motive is fundamental, it is correct to say that a chapter of that type is not a Beta Theta Pi chapter. Ideals may be forgotten in the search for room rent.

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Or, to express it differently, no mere grouping of students makes a chapter of Beta Theta Pi, even though those students come of good families, dress well, and are prominent socially. Beta Theta Pi has certain definite and fixed standards which have been erected during more than four-score y e a rs; and if those standards are ignored by young men wearing the badge and bearing the name, the chapter loses that particular character which others who were worthy gave to it. The group becomes like any other student group, indistinguishable for any special and exceptional reason. It hardly needs to be said, that such a situation, that, is, where Beta Theta Pi is exactly on a par with other groups, is intolerable when presented as a theory. Yet, this last college year, chapters of our fraternity trailed, and sometimes trailed far, behind chapters of newer organizations which are fighting for place and power with the vigor and vim which brought victory in early years to Beta Theta Pi. In any inter fraternity gathering where ideals are magnified and achievements proclaimed, it is a hard position for officers of our fraternity, when they see the new and crude organizations hailed as progressive leaders while Beta Theta Pi and others like it lag behind, because once virile chapters have lost their zeal and forgotten the legacy bequeathed to them to preserve and to perpetuate. The most un happy situation in human experience is where those prove recreant, who have taken an obligation to support a cause or where injury comes to an organization in the house of its friends. In magnifying the worth of our fraternity legacy, let us go a little further into our history. Beta Theta Pi has been built up from three dis tinct types of chapters. For the first forty years membership was based upon strong bonds of human friendship as they were cemented by close co-operation of kindred spirits in efforts to exemplify the three objects of the fraternity. No better expression of this is found than in familiar words> “ There’s a scene where brothers greet W here true kindred hearts do meet A t an altar sending love’s sweet incense high, W here is found without alloy Purest store of earthly joy ’T is within the halls of Beta Theta Pi.”

Up to 1879 no one was admitted to the charmed circle until he had been studied with scrutinizing care and had demonstrated his ability in college activities of some sort, scholarship and literary power leading. Chapters were small and sentiment was strong. This is the reason why the alumni of that half of our history were so devoted to Beta Theta Pi and so loyal to it. Every member was a hand-picked man. Each one, immediately after initia tion, gained inspiration to work hard, because of the individualistic idea, magnified in ritual and by the fact that each novitiate went through the initiation by himself. In 1879, with the Alpha Sigma Chi alliance and the construction of the eastern wing of the fraternity, the “ society” idea, so unfamiliar in the West, came into contact and conflict with the “ fraternity” one. The “ society” in the East had had a literary background. In selecting members there had been some attempt to secure congeniality, but the ties of friendship were not so strong, so compelling, as they were in the western “ fraternity.” As the new chapters were established, sometimes from loosely organized literary

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societies, under a plan providing for the acceptance of all former members, alumni members were placed on the rolls of Beta Theta Pi, who at the time of reception knew virtually nothing of its history or ideals, and never afterward had much chance to learn through contact with active chapters or groups of alumni. It was a slow process to bring these chap ters up to that plane of sentiment and idealism upon which the western chapters had always had their home. A third, and entirely distinct chapter type has developed in more recent years, the college boarding-house type. Chapters of this variety have ap peared mostly in the West. In institutions of large size, where dormitory accommodations have been inadequate or entirely lacking, boarding clubs have been organized. O f heterogeneous membership at first and with no more powerful impelling force than “ a place to sleep and a place to eat,” these clubs, by gradual growth, have developed bonds of friendship, social strength, athletic ambitions, zeal for co-operative scholarship, and even property ownership. Some deans, as if assuming all student groups alike unless they show distinctive qualifications, have listed them among student organizations and have tabulated their scholarship standings. The desire for fraternity recognition has come naturally, even though members of such groups have confessed to a complete ignorance about fraternity methods, fraternity machinery, or fraternity ideals. But, with hearts open and eager, these club chapters have assimilated quickly and have caught the vision in an astonishing fashion. Forty years ago the chapter house first appeared in Beta Theta Pi. It brought with it a real revolution. The fraternity chapter was localized and its membership became a matter of common knowledge. The small chapter with its strong ties of friendship soon disappeared. Members began to be selected hurriedly, no longer on the basis of demonstrated ability through actual college achievement, but often on a chance of their success because of favorable appearance, or good recommendation, or family standing, and sometimes pledged even before they left the high school or had shown ability to pass college entrance examinations. They began to be initiated in groups or delegations, instead of singly, and an annual initiation, or semiannual ones, became the custom of the chapters. The powerful influence of the indi vidualistic idea, absolutely dominant from 1839 to 1879, began to lose its impetus. The pressure of room-rent requirements grew greater and the “ filler” resulted. That is, some persons not qualified for Class A rating, but against whom nothing special could be urged, were taken to fill the rooms in the chapter house. As colleges increased in student enrollment, and the rivalry in chapter house building became more intense, chapters began to grow larger, until the tie of friendship became tremendously strained to encircle thirty, forty or fifty brothers in the fraternal group. The two extremes of our history are suggested by a report of a District Chief presented to this Convention, that one chapter must have more than thirty-nine members in order to live, and by a still existing provision of our organic law that no chapter with fewer than three members shall be allowed representation in a Convention. A s a matter of fact no chapter would be permitted to live now with a membership of fewer than three; but in the first forty years more than once a single individual preserved the life of a chapter or let it die rather than select members from those deemed

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inferior to the approved Beta standard. A question worthy of careful consideration is th is: Are our standards being steadily lowered ? Do we get the best in all our chapters? Do we get good candidates in all our chapters? Do we get poor ones anywhere? Is the method of selection of members in any chapter faulty ? Are we getting youth of small heads who have narrow vision and whose poorly supported pride of fraternity makes for snobbery? Do we get, in the main, young men of sense, who have wider vision and whose pride of fraternity makes for a feeling of deep responsibility? Again the fact is emphasized that selected men must make good, or their cause is so weakened as to lose claim to favorable consideration. The increasing opposition to college fraternities is not due primarily to any “ anti-secret” influence, although fostered by it. It is not due to snob bery, although helped by it. It is due to a real question whether, in an era of efficiency, the fraternity has any value. The answer to that question must come from the fraternity members themselves. In long-cherished words, “ By their fruits ye shall know them.” Here then is our problem, our task, and in view of the legacy of the fathers, our obligation. How can we maintain our three great fundamental ideals against the handicaps, the disturbing new factors, in modern fra ternity life? The answer is found in one word, the individual. We must magnify again the importance of the individual in Beta Theta Pi. The reports made by the District Chiefs to the General Secretary and by him to this Convention contain much illustrative material. One member spoils the scholarship standing of an entire chapter. One unruly member lowers the tone of chapter life and injuriously affects its morale. One drunken member tarnishes the reputation of a chapter house containing thirty indi viduals of high character. One dead beat gives a bad name to a score of associates. On the contrary, one member is selected by the faculty for special praise or for exceptional service and the fraternity at large shares the distinction. One member is elected president of the student body by popular vote of his fellows, and his fraternity affiliations are known by all. One conspicuous college leader lifts up with him all his fellow chapter members. The good and the poor are shown by the chapter report which tells how the bottom dropped out of a scholarship record when a few members of high scholastic standing graduated. I have presented these thoughts to you at the opening of this Con vention for a definite purpose. I am anxious for Beta Theta Pi. W e who are gathered here are the custodians of our fraternity legacy. What are we going to do with it? I like to try to catch the inspiration of dreamers who dare to dream bold dreams and to behold glorious visions of better things, for the realization of which they are willing to struggle and sacrifice. In fancy I see before me now a little band of eight comrades, met in secret on their country’s natal day, dreaming dreams. They early resolved that in order to attain the objects of their Association “ some methods should be devised in order to bring the talents, attainments and pursuits of each mem ber to bear upon the whole Association.” Their vision was that Beta Theta Pi was to be something more than a collection of groups of average students, with average scholastic standings; average in ambitions and attainments. Perhaps they pictured their Association, in Tennyson’s words, as “A glorious company, the flower of men T o serve as model for the mighty world And be the fair beginning of a time.”

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There are too many societies of average men. There is too much content ment with the idea of being average men. There is too much satisfaction with the assurance that one’s group is as good as the average group. An organization of selected individuals should be far above the average if it is to have any just reason for its existence. I am back to the individual again. Upon the individual must depend the success or failure of Beta Theta Pi. The standard by which we measure and are measured is not that of numbers, but the standard of mental strength and personal merit. It is upon the intelligence and virtue of its individual members that this fraternity must rely in days ahead as it has depended upon them in days that are gone. Come with me now a little way apart. Let us leave the low plain where the average folk are found and go up the mountain of vision where our founding fathers saw the three golden stars eighty-four years ago tomorrow. There, as pilgrims to a shrine did in days of old, let us erect “ A n altar sending love’s sweet incense high.”

There let each individual take anew an obligation to uphold as an indi vidual the dignity, the honor, the priceless heritage of Beta Theta Pi. There let us dream again the dream of the founders eight— their dream of desire and of destiny for our fraternity! “ This I believe: we tend to grow our dreams, N o matter how remote fulfillment seems. It matters not the drought or storm that yields Small hope o f promise for the harvest fields. Have we the faith amid the parching heat T o glimpse the small green blades of thrusting wheat And smile secure through driving winds and hail In simple trust, too deep o f root to fail? Then I believe that somehow, soon or late, There comes reward to dreamer souls that wait. To each who dared to hold the vision plain There dawns his golden fields of bending grain.”

(II. Delivered at the Eighty-sixth General Convention, Bigwin Inn, Lake of Bays, Ontario, Canada, September I, 1925, by Francis W. Shepardson, President of the fraternity.) As president of a great fraternity, I welcome you to the pleasures and the privileges, the opportunities and the obligations of the Eighty-sixth General Convention of Beta Theta Pi. This is the second time our fraternity has crossed the international boun dary to hold its Convention in Canada. In 1911 the Fifty-fifth General Con vention was held in the Clifton House at Niagara Falls, Ontario. It is a pleas ing illustration of the persistence of the idea of service in our fraternity that both the president and the secretary of that Convention, Clarence L. Newton and James T. Brown, are members of the body before me this morning at Bigwin Inn. It no doubt seemed strange to most of us as we made our way to this beautiful island to note in many places a flag flying which was different from the Stars and Stripes to which we have been accustomed. But it was a real satisfaction to all to think that, whether in the United States or in Canada, we still were within the confines of “ Beta’s Broad Dominion.” The first member of Beta Theta Pi to enter Canada probably was one of our founders, Samuel Taylor Marshall. There was a rebellion in western

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Canada as then known, led by Louis Papineau and often called Papineau’s Rebellion. Such a movement always attracts adventurous spirits from other lands than the one immediately concerned. A good many such adventurers from the United States crossed the border to fight with the rebels against British rule. Among them was Samuel Taylor Marshall. He was captured by the royal forces and thrown into prison. Had he received his deserts as one helping to foment rebellion in a land other than his own, the color sergeant might have said: “ They are hanging Taylor Marshall in the morning.” But in some way he escaped punishment and returned to the United States to attain immortality as one of the founders of Beta Theta Pi. The present invasion is a peaceful one. There were no guns at the gates as we entered Canada. It is true that we all signed forms declaring that we were free from contagious disease and that we had no intention of seeking any laborer’s job. But, other than that, it seemed like passing from one of our states to, another. And I am sure that every one here is proud to belong to nations which have developed in peace and friendship, side by side, for over a hundred years with a common boundary of three thousand unforti fied miles of imaginary line. Our invading troops make up a splendid all-American army of selected men, assembled from all parts of the United States, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Lakes to the Gulf, come to meet comrades from Canada— brothers all in Beta Theta Pi. It was not an accident that, in writing the words of “ America,” Samuel Francis Smith had the origin of the United States in mind as he set them to the tune of “ God Save the King.” Joseph S. Tunison, when he composed the “ Beta Doxology,” must have had a similar vision of an international fraternity as he carried in his thought the same fine melody. Allies in w a r; in peace, friends; in nation and fraternity we sing the same music and push forward together toward our imperial destinies. There is a pleasing tradition among us that, whenever we assemble in General Convention, we shall recall our founders— those eight “ boys of ’39” who gave to us the privilege of wearing the badge and bearing the name of Beta Theta Pi. W e have enrolled them among the Immortals, and we may believe that their spirits are hovering near us today as we come together to plan for the greatness and the glory of our fraternity. The same is true of that larger company of brothers, the administrative workers of days gone by, whose service helped to build up the institution which is ours as a precious heritage. W e recall their names with gratitude; we praise the living among them; we cherish the memory of the dead. W e know that many Betas, the world around, are with us in their thought in these great reunion days as they recall conventions of other years they attended, or find themselves prevented by circumstances from sharing the joys of days at Bigwin Inn. Nor, here in Canada, in the land of Mike Ma lone, can we forget those heroic brothers who gave their lives in a great cause, or the others who, during the past fraternity year, have “ finished the course.” Let us stand in silence for a moment in their memory, and, as we so do, let it be a time of renewed consecration, as we pledge them now that we will carry on.

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“ They rest, they sleep the dreamless sleep W hile cycles move. But in our hearts eternally we keep Their faith and love.”

Now in this place of wondrous beauty and peace, let us take up the prob lems of a great fraternity. The reputation of Beta Theta Pi has preceded us and gained for us admission into this splendid inn, as, in years gone by, it has opened for us the doors of the finest hotels in America. The reputa tion of the fraternity is now in the hands of the delegates and other attend ants of this Convention. To each Beta here I give a familiar charge: “ May it never be yours to reflect that with aught you have said or done Wooglin is offended!”

T H E Y A L E C H A P T E R H O U SE A rear view, showing Georgian features from a former Phi Chi house, happily introduced. The Harkness Quadrangle tower shows at the right.

Chapter X V I — T he Adytum

ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS K n o x M em orial T a b le t. On Wednesday, June 13, 1900, at 3:30 p . m ., the bronze memorial to the founders was unveiled in the old chapel of Miami University in the presence of a large company of Betas and friends. This tablet, four feet by two, was the work of Professor C. J. Barnhart of the Cincinnati A rt Academy. It displays at one end an excellent likeness of John Reily Knox, surrounded by a laurel wreath, with three stars under neath, and at the other end, in raised letters, “ In 1839 John Reily Knox and his associates founded here the Fraternity of Beta Theta Pi.” The position of the tablet on the wall occupies almost the exact site of the room of “ Pater K nox” in 1839. The program included introductory remarks by the. presi dent of Miami University, David S. Tappan, Miami ’64. Bishop David H. Moore, Ohio ’60, presented the tablet to the university on behalf of the fra ternity. John W . Herron, Miami ’45, president of the university board of trustees, accepted the gift. All participants in the programme were members of Beta Theta Pi.

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T h e T rab u e A n c e s try . Founder James George Smith, Miami ’40, was a descendant of Sir Antoine Trabue, one of the Huguenot immigrants to America. Charles Clay Trabue, Vanderbilt ’92, secretary of the Wooglin Convention of 1892, having had his attention called to the Smith lineage, w rote: “ This association of a kinsman of mine with the fraternity that I think so much of is a matter of unusual interest to me. W e are from the same ancestor, my own pedigree being briefly as follow s: I am the son of George W . Trabue, the son of Charles Clay Trabue, the son of Edward Trabue, the son of John James Trabue, the son of Antoine Trabue, who was a Huguenot and who first fled to Holland and came from there to America in 1700. He married Olympia Dupuy, who was likewise a Huguenot, and they lived at Manakin Town, in Virginia. I have a brother who bears the somewhat aristocratic name of Antony Edward Dupuy Trabue, named after an uncle— a name that has come down in the family through all the years. 398

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My great-grandfather and his brothers served in the Revolutionary War, and then settled in Kentucky, where my great-grandfather married Jane Clay, a cousin of Henry Clay, and it is from this great-grandmother that my middle name comes.” In the college year 1927-1928, a son and namesake of the writer just quoted was a ’31 man in the Vanderbilt chapter, and a nephew, Charles Clay Trabue IV, ’28, was chapter president at Davidson. A letter from President R. M. Hughes of Miami University, dated July 30, 1924, gave the registration record of the founders of Beta Theta Pi at Miami as follow s: John Reily Knox, Butler County, Ohio. Samuel Taylor Marshall, Butler County, Ohio. David Linton, Clinton County, Ohio. James George Smith, Lebanon, Ohio. Charles Henry Hardin, Columbia, Missouri. John Holt Duncan, Fayette, Mississippi. Michael Clarkson Ryan, Hamilton, Ohio. Thomas Boston Gordon, Elbert County, Georgia. H

omes

of t h e

oun ders.

O ly m p ia n G am es— F o o tr a c e . In a four-volum e edition o f A H is tory of Greece b y G eorge G rote, published some years ago by W . L. A llison Com pany, o f N ew Y o rk , there w ere a number o f illustrations. One o f them, on page 408 o f volum e I, w as entitled “ O lym pian Gam es— F o o t race.” It w as the emblematic picture used in the B eta T h eta Pi catalogue o f 1881 at the head o f the A lp h a chapter list. T h e picture, as originally published in the catalogue, contained several B eta m arkings in separate places. W h en the subscription-book publishers “ borrow ed” the cut for their purposes, some o f these m arkings w ere o b literated ; but the picture of the foot-race at the O lym pian Games, according to G rote’s History of Greece, showed the letters B © II on the shield o f the winner and, over in a secluded spot, the m ystic notation in G reek, a to X

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T h e O n l y G r e e k . An article in The New Republic for December 10, 1924, under the heading, “ The Twilight of the Classics,” discusses the steadily waning influence of Latin and Greek in the life of the educational world today. The conclusion is reached that the two are going, because “ no one outside the classical profession— not even the other teachers— expects American youth to master the classical languages. Right in the midst of the argument this is found:

“A certain national fraternity sings in all its chapter houses: ‘And when our sons to college go, college go, W e ’ll look them squarely in the eye, in the eye, And say to them the only Greek you have to know’ is three letters o f the Greek alphabet.”

The lines are not so expressive as those written by Horace Lozier and it is quite certain that the immortal Beta bard never dreamed that they would be used in an anti-classics article.

J O S E P H R. W IL S O N A B e t a ’s A b i d i n g I n f l u e n c e . In the masterly address delivered before the President of the United States, other distinguished government officials and the two houses of Congress, in joint session on December 15, 1924, President E. A . Alderman of the University of Virginia, eulogizing Wood row Wilson, paid a noble tribute to his father, Reverend Joseph Ruggles Wilson, D.D., Washington-Jefferson ’44. He mentioned the Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, North Carolina, of which Dr. Wilson was pastor, un der whose ministrations the late President and he grew up together, and then said: “ A s a child, sitting in the pew of my father, who was an officer in

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A M Y S T IC S E V E N G R O U P The Virginia chapter received from one of the form er Mystics a group picture which shows (reading across from left to right) Johnston of Virginia, M aury of Mississippi, W hittle and Moncure of V irginia; Scott and Minor of V irgin ia; Simson of Florida and Peugh of Louisiana; W atson o f Virginia, Hooker of Mississippi, Kent of Virginia and Hiblett of Tennessee.

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that church, and looking into the finely molded face of Joseph R. Wilson and listening to the words he spoke, I had my first perception that beauty and music and power to move even young hearts lay in the English tongue when fitly joined to substantial thought and serious eloquence; and he has remained to me, as he did to his famous son, through the discipline of a generation of sermons, a standard of good preaching to which it is a delight and comfort now and again to repair. The world owes a great debt to Joseph R. Wilson for though the son studied under many masters, none influenced him so strongly as his father, who bred in him an impatience of dullness and diffuse thinking, a precise sense of word values, a scorn of priggishness and formal piety, the power to proceed straight to the core of a subject under discussion, and to utter measured thoughts with a vigor and beauty that in later days, and on a grander stage, were destined to awaken the pride of his countrymen and to command the attention of the world.” L e t t e r s o n t h e F i r e p l a c e . In connection with the formal institution of the W est Virginia chapter on September 15, 1900, District Chief Milton Sayler, Cincinnati ’98, reported the following incident: “ The following day had a pleasing sequel. The chapter entertained the visiting Betas at Mont Chateau, a picturesque log hotel on the River Cheat, an hour’s drive from Morgantown over the mountains. On all sides were heavily wooded hills, and a hundred feet below flowed the River Cheat, dark with heavy shadows and immense rocks. This jaunt was most happily conceived, and the frolic of the boys as they chased each other up the big canon over great boulders and slippery ledges, leaping and slipping, laughing and splashing, was a decided relaxation from the services of the evening before. While on this run along the shore of the river,

“ Where the rocks are gray and the shore is steep, And the waters below are dark and deep,” a ruin of an old stone dwelling was found overgrown with ivy. It was ap parently the home of some hermit many years ago. Climbing up into it, “ Where a lofty pine in its lonely pride” stood gloomily, as Penates, where was once the hearth, we found cut in deep letters on the inner stone wall to the left of the massive fireplace, the Greek letters “B © n ,” with the date “ 1879.” There must have been some mis take ; the 7 surely was intended for a 3, and this was the ruin of the home of Wooglin. How he must have loved those Alpha boys to have traveled so far to meet them ! The letters, having once been seen, were plainly dis cernible from the path far beneath, and for a few moments there was great excitement in the ranks of Beta Psi.” T h e 4B e t a S p i r i t . Acton Poulet, Kansas ’96, Yale ’97, once played the leading part in a little drama, “ When a Feller Needs a Friend,” out in Sai gon, China. The American destroyer Noa was compelled to remain in Sai gon because of a shortage of fuel, the American naval supply in the Orient having been depleted by a courteous act in conveying a new plane from T o kyo to Akyab to enable a British aviator, Stuart Maclaren, to continue his flight, this favor being shown to British Flight Commander Smith. Then

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when a supply of fuel was sought for the Noa from a British petroleum company, the manager refused to give credit to the United States Navy, and, after cabling England, announced that no fuel would be furnished without a cash payment larger than the amount of money in the possession of the Amer ican naval officers and men. A t this point the Beta hero appeared. A l though manager of the Standard Oil Company at Saigon, he had no fuel, the British company mentioned having the local monopoly. But he had faith in Uncle Sam and a supply of cash. So he advanced $1,000 to Commander Theobald of the United States Navy, the destroyer Noa secured the needed fuel, and soon proceeded northward to rejoin the Asiatic fleet. Americans at Saigon were indignant over the British Oil Company manager’s attitude, and, of course, were proud of Acton Poulet. British aviators, however, were extremely grateful for the courtesy shown by the United States Navy and had their opportunity to show appreciation when the American Arm y worldcirclers reached India. They seized it, too, and showed our aviators every possible attention. B e ta S o n Pledges F a th e r . Fraternity history is said to have been made at the University of Idaho, November 4, 1921, when Gamma Gamma chapter initiated, in the person of R. R. Richmond, Idaho ’22, not a Beta son but a Beta father. Although Richmond, Sr., had passed his fiftyfirst milepost, he enrolled at the University of Idaho in September as a graduate student with view of adding to the B.A. degree he received at Whittier College, Salem, Iowa, in 1907, the degree of Master of Science in Education. His son, Preston A. Richmond, Idaho ’19, who was in Mos cow when the university opened, placed the three-starred pledge button of the fraternity on his father’s coat lapel. For several years the elder Rich mond has been superintendent of schools at Orofino, Idaho, and his fre quent visits to Moscow while Preston A. or “Jack” was still an under graduate, gave him an enthusiastic interest in Gamma Gamma chapter and in the fraternity as a national organization. Son “ Jack” was president of the Idaho chapter in his senior year and he held for two seasons the captaincy of the university track team. He also was a consistent “ A ” honor student, sang an acceptable baritone, and played first cornet in the university band and orchestra. He threw cinders into the teeth of other sprinters in the northwest conference for three years, invariably clipping off the 100-yard dash in 10 flat or a shade better and the 200 in 21% or 22 flat. The initiation of the father after the son recalls the incident in the early history of the Hanover chapter, where Daniel L. Gray, Miami ’26, was initiated by Iota chapter in response to his expressed wish, because of his interest in the chapter which had done so much for his son, John Hanna Gray, Hanover ’56, who had died at Hanover College the year be fore. A R e a l “ J i n e r .” In the P i Bulletin for October 16, 1923, the following story is told. It is one of several curious tales which attach themselves to the checkered history of the Indiana chapter. In the days of frequent “ lifting” one member of this chapter achieved the distinction of belonging to four fraternities, one for each of his college years. He landed in Beta Theta Pi in his senior year. “ In the early days, no charter was granted

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to a petitioning group. One man was initiated, and the problem of securing others who would carry on the ideals of the fraternity was left to him. One of the most unusual cases that has been uncovered so far is the record of a man who entered De Pauw University in 1880. Failing to become a Beta as he had hoped, he remained ‘unorganized.’ A t that time the chapter of Phi Delta Theta at ‘Old Asbury’ was in the last stages of life. The only remaining Phi Delt persuaded him to become a member of his fraternity. Two years later this student found himself the only local Phi Delta Theta. A t this time the traveling representative of Psi Upsilon dropped off at Greencastle and determined to establish a chapter of that society there. He found that this only remaining Phi Delt was his only hope. A fter no little persuasion he initiated him into the fraternity of Psi Upsilon. A fter the man had graduated he came to Bloomington to inspect some books for Monroe County. While in town some of the members of the then active Beta chapter received a letter from a member of the De Pauw chapter asking that this man be initiated into Beta Theta Pi. Although this was an irregular situation, after some controversy with the alumni this was done.”

T h e P u r d u e C h a p t e r H a c k . During the college year 1921-22 at Purdue it was decided to purchase an old cab that was for sale on the east side of town. It was the idea of the chapter to meet all incoming trains during the homecoming period and give the returning alumni a ride across the levee and around the campus. The hack was purchased and then came the difficult problem of painting the “ bus” in the appropriate colors. A different color scheme has been used each year. In I 925 the hack was taken out of storage a few days earlier than usual and placed on the back porch of the chapter house for refinishing. A night or two before home coming it disappeared. A fter some search it was found in a hay stack on a near-by farm, and returned to its place. A tip was received that members of “ fraternity row” were going to get the hack sometime during the night. Therefore a freshman guard was detailed to stand watch for the invaders. The Lafayette daily paper, the next morning, under the heading “ Betas Drive O ff Invaders Bent on Seizing Historic H ack : Shots Fired and Water

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Poured,” said, “ Littleton Street, W est Lafayette, was the scene of a mini ature revolution early Friday morning when a band of invaders attempted to carry away the Beta Theta Pi fraternity’s priceless relic, the old hack used to convey returning alumni from railroad stations to the chapter house on the occasion of Purdue homecoming. For nearly two hours the battle raged, and when peace was restored the old vehicle was still reposing on the Beta house porch. The defenders had won the day. Thursday night some rival fraternity groups stole the hack from the Beta yard and hid it under a hay stack. The Betas found it and returned it to the chapter house. It was lodged on the back porch with freshmen standing guard. About four o’clock Friday morning the enemy charged, but found the Beta chapter prepared for invasion. In the invading army were about fifty mem bers of other societies on Fraternity Row. The Betas had shotguns, pistols, buckets of water, clubs, and other weapons ready. The shotgun shells had been loaded with ‘L ife Saver’ peppermint lozenges, which accounts for the absence of mortalities, when volley after volley was fired. Several lines of garden hose were also in action and revolvers were fired into the air. Several men were laid out, a number were bruised and cut, but nobody was seriously hurt. The fire department and the police of West Lafayette and Lafayette were called, but when they arrived they found nobody to arrest.” A H a r l a n S t o r y . In the years 1861-1863, John Marshall Harlan, Centre ’50, who died in 1911, was colonel of the Tenth Kentucky Volun teers, U .S.A ., in 1863, commanding the Second Brigade, Third Division, Fourth Arm y Corps. General Basil Duke played quite a part in the war between the States and wrote a book giving a history of Morgan’s cavalry which raided the border states. In a column of the New Y ork Evening Post, “ The Daily Mirror of Washington,” Mr. Clinton W . Gilbert said: “ Here is another story that they tell in Washington of the Civil W ar experiences of former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Harlan. It was in the early days of the conflict, when Harlan was a young officer in the Union armies operating out in the Mississippi Valley. The Northern forces to which Harlan was attached had captured a number of Southern prisoners. To Harlan was assigned the duty of commanding a guard which was taking several of them to a military prison. Among the prisoners was a young Southern officer named Basil Duke. Harlan was a Kentuckian himself and he had known Duke since they were both boys. Perhaps they had been to school together; at any rate, they were old friends. And Harlan naturally felt sympathetic with the gallant young Southerner on his way to prison. Part of the way to the prison the party could go by railroad and Harlan commandeered a handcar, loaded his prisoners and their guard on it and set them to pumping their way along the iron rails. They were passing through a wooded country. The handcar went swiftly down a long grade and slowed as the effort o f working it up the compensating ascent on the other side of the valley tired the arms of the soldiers who were working the handles of the car. Suddenly Harlan put his foot, as if by accident, on the brake and the car slowed down; at the same time he gave Duke a nudge and Duke jumped from the car and disappeared into the woods before anyone had time to fire at him. Harlan cursed himself for his blunder in stepping on the brake

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but said there was no use of pursuing Duke, since they were likely to lose the other prisoners if they did so. He ordered the guard to proceed with the handcar and Duke was left to make his way back to the Confederate lines. Ihere, thanks to the friendly act of his old comrade, he rose to be a rather famous general before the war was over. Harlan used to tell the story long afterward with great gusto.” H e R e m e m b e r e d t h e C a p t a i n . One of the most distinguished of the early members of the Rutgers chapter was Ichizo Hattori, ’75. On his return to his native country he entered governmental administration and attained high position. In 1900 he was Governor of the region around Nagasaki. Captain Castner, of the United States Army, was on his way to the Philippines upon a transport laden with troops. He wanted to obtain for the commander permission to land his troops at Nagasaki, in order to permit some needed repairs to the vessel, and called upon the Governor for that purpose. To his surprise he found the Governor able to speak English fluently. On explaining the object of his call, the Governor asked what part of the United States he came from. When he answered, “ New Brunswick, New Jersey,” the Governor said to him : “ Your name is Castner, is it? Well, aren’t you the boy who used to go shooting up DeRussey Lane when I was a student in Rutgers College?” It turned out that Captain Castner was the very boy. It is needless to add that he obtained the permission he sought and that he was royally treated by the Governor, who recalled his residence in New Brunswick with great pleasure.

Miss Leila McKee, head of Western College at O x ford, Ohio, not far from the Miami campus, a Kentucky Beta girl, a Beta daughter, a Beta sister, a Beta sweetheart, gave the rose to Beta Theta Pi as the fraternity flower. The original bush is on the Western College campus. Some years ago Gurdon Gilmore Black, Washington ’o i, deter mined to grow some slips from this bush with the idea of having them avail able for planting on chapter house grounds throughout the country. But he reports: “ It was in 1910, I believe, that I got some slips from what was supposed to be the original Beta rosebush at Miami. Lawrence Swan sent them. Our gardener, in the water department, slipped them and tried to raise some. One bloomed— a yellow moss rose— not at all the kind that was originally presented. I think W . A. Hamilton told me those were pink. Anyway, we tried all we could to make them grow— had men working with them who were growing roses every day, but we had no luck. One by one they died. The plants never were healthy. And so I am sorry to say I have no Beta roses, as I had hoped for.” T

eta

ose.

M e m o rie s o f C u m b e r la n d . M uch sentiment alw ays centered about the old Cum berland chapter. It had 285 members all told, with strong fam ily lines, and w ith quite a number of distinguished leaders am ong them. O ne o f them, H orace H . Lurton, becam e an A ssociate Justice o f the U nited States Suprem e Court. Som ething o f its initial jo y s was suggested by one o f the charter members, John J. M cD avid , in a letter w ritten about five years befo re his death in 1907 in Birm ingham , A labam a. H e said: “ I w as a charter member o f M u chapter at the Cum berland U niversity, Lebanon,

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Tennessee, and followed it through all of its troubles up to 1855, when I graduated. I have noted with pleasure ever since I left the university the success of the members of this society. Since I left the university in i 855>I have not visited my Alma Mater, and have frequently resolved to do so. W e had in those days, many difficulties to overcome, by the persistent objection of the professors to all secret societies, and many times we had to have out side sentinels to keep from being disturbed by the faculty. I shall never for get the good old times I had in Mu chapter. Opossum suppers and potatoes, cooked in high style as only a southern negro could cook them, were the menu after the secret sessions of the society. I note with pleasure also the high stand the members of this society have taken in the legislation of this country. They have been prominent in peace and in w a r; and no one, even as old as I am (seventy years), need be ashamed of his association with this society.” A P u z z l e . The North Carolina chapter of Beta Theta Pi was estab lished on April 28, 1852, by William Farinfold Green, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, a member of the Jefferson chapter who graduated in the class of 1850. He was a student at Jefferson at the time when Andrew Dousa Hepburn, No. 23 on the list of members of the parent chapter of Phi Gamma Delta, left that new fraternity, thereby making his name anathe ma to the builders. It was blotted out from the roll and it was decreed that his name should never be mentioned in Phi Gamma Delta, “ No. 23” being the only method of reference. The publication in the Beta Theta P i for April, 1926, of an article about North Carolina Beta pioneers brought out an inter esting fact: that Junius I. Scales, founder of the North Carolina Beta chap ter, had previously been a member of Phi Gamma Delta. The widow of Judge Wallace Scales, a house mother for a University of Idaho sorority, showed the article to Professor George M. Miller, chairman of the Phi Gamma Delta national committee on scholarship. His retentive memory recalled the name of Junius I. Scales as a member of the Epsilon chapter of Phi Gamma Delta which was founded at Chapel Hill in March, 1851, before Beta Theta Pi entered the University of North Carolina. He referred the puzzle to the historian of Phi Gamma Delta, William F. Chamberlin. The latter reported that various editions of the fraternity catalogue show, J. J. Scaler, Rockingham, N .C .; Junius J. Scales, Graham, N .C .; Junius I. Scales, Greensboro, N.C., Col. C .S .A .; Junius I. Scales, Greensboro, N.C., member of House of Commons of General Assembly of N.C., Col. C.S.A., senator General Assembly of N .C .; Honorable Junius I. Scales. One catalogue, that of 1895, omitted the name altogether. The last catalogue gives the name with “ died 1880, New York, N .Y .” Founder Scales’ son, Alfred Moore Scales, of Greensboro, North Caro lina, a prominent member of the North Carolina chapter of Beta Theta Pi, reports that he never heard of his father being a Phi Gamma Delta, that none of his family knows anything about it, that his father was the only Junius I. Scales of the period, that the name, Junius I. Scales, is the first on the roll of the North Carolina Beta chapter, that Nathaniel Eldridge Scales, also one of the Beta pioneers, was first cousin of his father Junius. So the mystery remains unsolved.

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Farm ers C o lle g e C h ap ter. Riley Evans Stratton, ’44* of Farmers College, College Hill, Ohio, was initiated at Miami to start a chapter of the fraternity in his Alma Mater. His project was not carried out. The sub ject came up again in 1849, a mail vote of the chapters being taken, as is shown by a letter of Theodore S. Payne, of Western Reserve, to John W. Noble, of Miami, February 22, 1849. (See Beta Letters, page 211, which contains reference also to R. E. Stratton.) On May 18, 1852, John D. Dur ham, of Indiana Asbury, wrote A. C. Junkin, of Miami (see Beta Letters, page 224), giving a list of members and an added list including “J. C. Turk, a graduate of Farmers College.” The catalogue record runs: “John Cary Turk, A.B., Farmers, 1849; lawyer; died 1871, Council Bluffs, Iowa.” Ap parently he was one of the 1849 Farmers group and was initiated by Delta chapter for that reason, possibly while attending Indiana Asbury University. A C h a p te r a t E rs k in e ? Richard T. Durrell, of Miami, wrote Wesley O. Young, of Ohio, February 26, 1865 (see Beta Letters, page 455), “ I also received a letter from one of our brethren in the South. A young fellow by the name of Caldwell wrote to our chapter last week from Richmond, Virginia. He is in the Rebel Kershaw’s Division. He wanted to know what testimony he would have to give of membership. He addressed us as ‘Alpha.’ He said he was a member of a chapter in South Carolina in 1857 at Erskine College. I wrote to him and did the best I could for him. I will hear from him again soon.” But there the story ends, so far as Beta Theta Pi is concerned. In Joseph C. Nate: History of the Sigma Chi Fra ternity, Volume I, page 484, it is recorded that a chapter of Sigma Chi was established at Erskine early in i860. The narrative states, “ Erskine College was without fraternities, and her faculty was known to be unfavorable to such organizations. Even local fraternities had been suppressed on one pretext or another as their existence had become known.” T h e Thom as C h ap ter. In the summer of 1901 the United States Arm y transport Thomas carried a large number of American teachers to the Philippine Islands to have a part in the work of the Bureau of Education in establishing and maintaining public schools for the Filipinos. “ The Log of the Thomas” which tells of the interesting adventures and experiences of this epoch-making voyage recounts: “A chapter of the Beta Theta Pi fra ternity, comprising ten members was organized during the voyage with the following officers: president, R. W . W ells; vice-president, Ben E. Neal; sec retary, W . B. Chapman.” Wells was from Ohio Wesleyan, Neal from Syra cuse, and Chapman from Case. D in n e r t o Bishop Moore. On June 4, 1900, three dozen Betas gave a farewell dinner in Cincinnati to Bishop David H. Moore, Ohio ’’60, on the eve of his departure on a four years’ missionary trip to the Orient. In his speech Bishop Moore referred to the fact that he was the third in suc cession of bishops to be sent to the Orient, and that his predecessors, Bishop Isaac M. Joyce, De Pauw ’72, and Bishop Earl Cranston, Ohio ’61, were both members of Beta Theta Pi. A B e l o it S u b R osa E x p e d ie n t . In the minutes o f Chi chapter for April 22, 1873, is an entry showing that all active members tendered their

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409

resignations, each to take effect one hour before the individual should be officially summoned before the faculty. On April 28, 1873, a new member was elected, initiated and placed on the list of the “ resigned.” The minutes of that evening contain a provision that a member who “ resigns” may be affiliated later without the payment of a fee. When Goodwin D. Swezey was called before the faculty, having “ resigned,” he brought back word to his former chapter mates that the faculty thought that the fraternity should dis band. So a vote was taken, nominally to disband, subject to the call of the president. Then “ Mr. Swezey was called in and informed of the chapter’s decision to disband.” But it was not long before “ the call of the president” was heard with “ Mr. Swezey” on deck. Sometimes the meetings were held in the second stone-quarry about two miles north of Beloit; sometimes in a local hotel whose proprietor stood in with the boys. There is a break in the minutes from March 1, 1878, until M ay 30, 1881, when a letter to the faculty confessing fault and asking pardon and official recognition is followed by a letter from the president of the college granting permission for open exist ence. T h e T a c t fu l C rusader. Among the tributes paid by admiring friends to the life work and memory of Charles Zueblin, Northwestern ’87, none is finer than the following from a long-time friend and co-worker in social activities, George E. Hooker of Chicago. Brother Zueblin died in Corsier, Switzerland, on'September 14, 1924, shortly after returning exhausted from a mountain climb of 3,000 feet. If it is kept in mind that the Zueblin family ancestral home was in St. Gall, Switzerland, one sentence in Mr. Hooker’s gracious paragraphs will be clear. The tribute appeared in the New Republic under the head “ The Tactful Crusader” and was written from Geneva, Swit zerland. “ Few Americans of this century have been more widely and grate fully known in their own land. For nearly thirty years he had occupied the American lecture platform, and always as an agitator for more adventurous and finer development. He was witty and brilliant, but characteristically to give effect to an appeal, not to entertain. O f how many who win public attention could it be remarked, ‘He was continually risking his reputation in what he said.’ But that was Zueblin. He rarely even failed to make some or perchance many, in his audience shake their heads in disgust. He lectured to persuade toward greater moral enterprise. He was for advance, not con tentment. He was always thinking and urging causes— children’s play grounds, votes for women, the League of Nations. L ife was a tactful cru sade. The common people too liked his courage, and it was their life that he wanted to see refreshed. There was a fitness in his ashes being returned to the land of his fathers, the land which he loved to visit. There was a fitness, too, in the simple services held. The singing was only by the insects in the grass, the birds in the sunny trees— the increasing voices. His long educational work is a part of the eternal building forces henceforth. His internationalism has its new and great promise embodied at this fittingly chosen seat of the League of Nations.”

A note from the Wabash College News Bureau, sent out in the closing week in March, 1924, said: “ Breakfasts have been sus pended at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity house at Wabash College for an en W

abash

asts.

4io

BETA LORE

tire month so that the cost of thirty daily house breakfasts may be turned into the student friendship fund being raised on the campus for the assist ance of students in countries stricken by the war. Collection of funds at Wabash is under the supervision of Dr. L. H. Gipson of the faculty. Every fraternity made pledges a chapter matter, eight houses already having re ported 100 per cent subscription.” D r . G u n s a u l u s . M ay 9, 1921, the Chicago Daily News printed the following about Frank W akeley Gunsaulus, Ohio Wesleyan ’75, the author of the lines being a former president of Knox College: “ Warm personal trib ute to the memory of Dr. Frank Wakeley Gunsaulus has been received from London in the form of a sonnet by Dr. John Huston Finley, the noted ed ucator. When he heard of the minister’s sudden death Dr. Finley went alone to the Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey and penned the lines, which were forwarded to Chicago by Edward Price Bell, London correspondent of the the Daily N ew s”

GU N SAU LU S Here have I come, alone, to mourn my friend And yours, O ye who dwell immortally In this loved “ Poet’s Corner” ; for ’tis ye That should to my long grief your presence lend. Ye, who the most enduring words have penned In memory of friends, O sing for me O f him, who’s worthy in the company O f those you’ve sung, eternally to spend. “He knew, himself, to build the lo fty rhyme,” But better still, he knew the spirit’s speech W ith which to stir the men o f his own time; H e knew the flaming word to preach and teach. “ The word made flesh”— his master’s mystery; “ The flesh made word,” this was his ministry. J

ohn

in l e y

W estminster Abbey, April 3, 1921. N o r t h w e s t e r n M e m o r i a l V o l u m e . A valuable addition to the ar chives of Rho chapter at Northwestern University was made in connection with its semicentennial celebration in June, 1923. It was largely the work of W . A. Hamilton, ’79, former president of the fraternity. It is a volume of type-written pages containing a complete record of the proceedings con nected with the celebration of the chapter’s founding. The various events of the reunion week are described in detail, photographic illustrations en • riching the historical document. The speeches delivered at the great cli mactic dinner are reproduced in exact language. Read together in sequence they give one a pretty correct notion of the chapter life, the inspiring ideals, the loyalty of members, the contributions to the general fraternity, and the notably honorable record of Rho chapter during half a century. To insure greater safety of this invaluable narrative several carbon copies were made, each being neatly bound in black leather with appropriate printed inscription in gold lettering. While, naturally, the most of the text has greater value to members of Rho chapter, the main historical address by M r . Hamilton, a manuscript of unusual insight and power, contains much of interest re garding the Richmond Convention of 1872, at which, action was taken

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411

leading up to a charter for Northwestern, and also concerning the condition of the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity in the years immediately following the Civil War. Each year the Denver Alumni Association of Beta Theta Pi awards a cup to the outstanding Beta football star in the dis trict, the cup being a personal one and not a competitive award handed down from year to year. The winners of this trophy have been: D

enver

lum ni

Cup.

1921— James Lee Willard, University of Colorado. 1922— Neil Francis Smith, University of Utah. 1923— John Russell DeFries, Colorado College. 1924— George Daniel O ’Donnell, Denver University. 1925— John Albert Brown, Colorado College. 1926— James McKinley Scilley, Denver University. 1927— Everett Brooks Saunders, Denver University. DeFries won the cup in his first year of college football, in spite of the fact that, other conditions being equal, the preference is given to seniors. He was elected Colorado College captain for 1926, but had to leave college, owing to a severe throat trouble that nearly proved fatal. Lee Willard is the only man in the Rocky Mountain Conference to make sixteen letters in athletics. O ’Donnell, Scilley, and Saunders were guards; Brown, tackle. h e B e t a D o x o l o g y . An editorial in the Beta Theta Pi, in 1912, read: “ The Board of Trustees has caused to be prepared a special copy of the last edition of the song book and has presented it to Joseph S. Tunison, Denison ’73, as a token of our appreciation of his service to the fraternity as a writer of songs. The special copy is bound in dark green levant leather and contains a special insert page beauti fully illuminated by Coella Ricketts (who is the best artist in that line in the country), and dis playing the inscription: Presented by 11 The Fra ternity || in 1912 to || Joseph Salathiel |f Tunison 11 Alpha Eta 1873 11 Author 11 of “ Gemma Nos tra” 11 and the 11 Beta Doxology. The Beta D ox ology we recently read to an experienced hymnologist, who said a doxology was the most difficult of all things to write and that ours was the best he had ever seen not excepting the standard one reading “ Praise God from whom all blessings flow,” etc. W e are proud to have among our members one capable of writing such noble verse and still more grateful of the ability of the fraternity to induce the sentiment which made the composition possible.”

B e t a S w e e t h e a r t . T h e “ B e t a S w e e t h e a r t ” s o n g b e c a m e p o p u la r a n d g a i n e d w i d e s p r e a d a p p r o v a l in B e t a ’s b r o a d d o m i n i o n in 1914. The he

412

BETA LORE

words and the air were provided by Frederick Raynsford Warner, Beloit ’ 12. Both were simple and easily learned. The Warner version w as: “ How would you like to be a Beta Sweetheart? How would you like to wear a Beta pin? How would you like to gaze upon the diamond, Gem of gems that ne’er grows dim? How would you like to share a Beta friendship, Friendship that will last through life? How would you like to love a Beta always? And how would you like to be a Beta w ife?” Informal additional verses followed quickly, the best known being one from which the two lines : “ How would you like to do a Beta’s washing How would you like to darn a Beta’s socks?” are quoted in Jay William Hudson’s book, Nowhere Else in the World. It goes: “ How would you like to do a Beta’s washing, How would you like to darn a Beta’s socks, How would you like to bake a Beta’s biscuits, Biscuits that are hard as rocks? How would you like to patch a Beta’s trousers, Patches that will last through life? How would you like to nurse a Beta baby, How would you like to be a Beta w ife?” Then a Columbia Beta freshman added a stanza well-suited to an age of “petting” : “ How would you like to have a Beta hold you, How would you like his arm around your waist, How would you like to snuggle, snuggle closer In a Beta’s fond embrace? How would you like your head upon his shoulder, Or cheek to cheek as hours roll by? How would you like to be the wife forever O f a man of Beta Theta P i?” Down at Ocean Grove, New Jersey, Stanley Mahon and Milton Condit of the Syracuse chapter, enjoying a summer vacation, sang this to the sad sea w aves: “ How would you like to stand beside a Beta, While the preacher makes you man and wife? How would you like to make a Beta happy, Happy morning, noon and night? How wquld you like to build a little love nest Where the dreams of love come true? If you want to be a Beta sweetheart, Then you’ll have to love a Beta too.” Soon after that a Beta school teacher was brought on the carpet before the board of education on charges of singing “ an amorous lyric” to some of the girls in his classes. It was the “ Beta Sweetheart Song,” in some one

ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS

4i 3

or all its versions, that was considered by the mothers of the community to be “ amorous.” T e l l i n g t h e F o l k s i n 1871. In his search for historical material re lating to his chapter, Karl Fischer, Indiana ’25, found a letter written to the folks at home by an Indiana Beta of the class of 1874. Printed in the fraternity magazine, the following extract was widely copied by the Greekletter press: “ Now I am going to tell you something that I do not know what you will think of. I have never heard you express your opinion. I have joined a Greek society. Quite likely you will think there is some secret connected with it. Now all that is secret is that we assist each other in the literary society performances and assist in anything else that he needs. A person will always have friends in college if he is a Greek, and should he wish to run for college honors, his fraternity will assist all in their power. Popularity is of much importance in college and if he wears a Greek badge, he is more popular than if he is a barb, for all that are not Greeks are barbarians. Each fraternity has its own badge which its members wear. Jim is a member of one; he is a Sigma Chi, and I am a Beta Theta Pi. The one I am a member of has the best students in college; they are all a nice set. W e are called Betas. The Vice-President of the United States is a Beta. I wore a badge last night for the first time and today I was overwhelmed with congratula tions, for it is considered a great honor to wear a Greek badge. I give this description, hoping that if you think I have done wrong, you will forgive me and not condemn.” R o d e P o n y E x p r e s s . A member of the fraternity, Chester Lawrence Conlon, Dartmouth ’ 18, first lieutenant in the Eleventh Cavalry, U. S. Army, stationed at the Presidio of Monterey, California, was one of the riders in the Pony Express Race which carried mesages half-way across the continent in October, 1923. Lieutenant Conlon was in that part of the race which went from the Nevada-California state line to the finish at Tanforan Race Track. E a r l y M e e t i n g s a t R e s e r v e . “ The present condition of this chapter is very good,” wrote William B. Woods, later to be Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, of the Western Reserve chapter on Novem ber 27, 1843. “W e have ten members on the ground; there is room for further increase; but we wish to preserve our society as choice as possible, and we find that ten is a number large enough in all conscience. Our meet ings occur once in three weeks on Tuesday evenings at which we read essays and reviews— two essays being read by the members in alphabetical order or each member having some department of essay writing which he chooses, and two reviews of essays before, being appointed by the president............ Our meetings are rendered deeply interesting by the zeal of the members.” O ld T im e C h a p t e r L if e . Noah Sampson Givan, Indiana ’58, was elected to membership in Pi chapter on Tuesday, December 16, 1856. A t the next meeting, held on Tuesday, January 6, 1857, in the room of John Dodds Perring, ’57, and Hamilton Samuel McRea, ’57, he was regularly initiated. Augustus Davis Lynch, De Pauw ’57, was a visitor. Brother

BETA LORE

414

Givan, a lawyer in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, when he had been a Beta sixtyseven years, wrote of his initiation and of chapter life at Indiana, “ I don’t remember how or where I was initiated. I know it was in the room of a brother. I remember Stone, Burton, Dorman, and McRae well. I be lieve they are all dead. Our chapter life was something like this: We would meet in one of the members’ room. Some member would read a paper on some subject; we then would talk about it for a while; then talk about other matters as long as we wished. Then the member in whose room we met had to furnish a lunch which consisted of ginger cakes and bologna sausage, and if he attempted to furnish anything else he was subject to a fine. W e generally had a good time.”

T H R E E D IC K IN S O N B A D G E S H enry Shirk, Dickinson ’76 owns three badges associated with his chapter life. Besides a standard badge he has one of the rare secondary badges o f 1872 and also the emblem of the “ Independents,” from which local the chapter developed. A b o u t t h e D i a m o n d . The following fugitive verse was clipped one day by Dunlap C. Clark, Chicago ’ 18. There was nothing to indicate its authorship. Its suggestion is worthwhile:

“ Diamonds are only chunks of coal That stuck to their jobs, you see. If they’d petered out as most of us do, Where would the diamonds be? It isn’t the fact of making a start; It’s the sticking that counts, I’ll say; It’s the fellow who knows not the meaning of fail, But hammers and hammers away. Whenever you think you have come to the end And you’re beaten as bad as can be, Remember that diamonds are chunks of coal That stuck to their jobs, you see.” On January 1, 1920, when Thomas P. Johnston, Davidson ’ 14, became pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Christiansburg, Virginia, he discovered that with the exception of the years 1918 and I 9J9 the pulpit had been supplied by a Beta ever since 1865. This line of minis ters included Thomas W . Hooper, Hampton-Sidney ’ 55> 1865-1870; Daniel Blain, Washington-Lee ’58, 1871-1888; Thomas W . Hooper (second pastor ate), 1888-1906; Edward E. Lane, Hampton-Sidney ’93, 1906-1917. Then A

eta

u c c e ssio n .

ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS

4i5

Lane resigned to enter Y.M .C .A . service in France and the Beta chain was broken. R e c a llin g C o lle g e Days. To the Beloit Alumnus for December, 1923, Lathrop Ezra Smith, Beloit ’62 contributed an article on early days in the college. “ I was a charter member of the Beta Theta Pi, the first of the college secret societies to get an abiding place in Beloit. My recollection is that the Beloit chapter was instituted in 1859 by Elisha Morgan who had been initiated at Wabash. The original members who signed the constitution were ten in number, v iz .: Elisha Morgan, Samuel K. Martin, Lyman W . Winslow, Orville W . Coolidge, Samuel D. Hastings, Henry Burton, Henry S. Osborne, Samuel Erskine, George H. Cooper, and Lathrop E. Smith. I feel certain that it was in October of the fall term of 1859 that we were initiated. It was then really a secret society for a while, as it penetrated into the college environment without the knowledge or consent of the faculty. We met at the homes of members, usually at Lyman Winslow’s home, where his mother treated us to refreshments and guarded us against intrusion by barbs. It was customary, at the close of the sophomore year, to hold memorial exercises on completion of trigonometry. Henry Burton, our class poet, gave a solemn eulogy in verse in commemoration of ‘Old Trig.’ On his reaching his eightieth year a London paper had a page of interesting matter relating to the ‘Rev. Dr. Henry Burton of West Kirby, England, the famous octogenarian hymn writer.’ Henry was born a poet.” The article told of several college pranks of the type which linger long in student memory. One professor was an enthusiastic fancier of Shanghai poultry. He was perturbed one morning in chapel when, as he lifted the lid of the desk to take out the Bible, a Shanghai rooster flew out to the consternation of the faculty. Once the college bell kept up such an unusual irregular and prolonged ringing, on a specially dark night, that faculty, student and citizens became alarmed and made an investigation. Finally they found, in a secluded part of the campus, a horse eating oats from a low box, and every time he moved his head up or down, the rope con nected with the bell rope made the bell ring. Chapel services were held as early as six o’clock in the morning and attendance was obligatory. Dark, blizzardy mornings furnished no excuse for tardiness or absence. Many a boy many a time just got in almost breathless at the last tap of the bell in the belfry. The watchful, kind-hearted bellringer espying from his loft an almost belated boy on the run would often prolong the tolling of the bell. The monitor won the good will of the panting boys by giving them the benefit of the prolonged final tap. A t rare intervals the dreaded bell would be upset on a winter night and filled with water so that the tell-tale clapper would freeze in and fail to sound the exact minute for prayers. H o m e T o w n A s s o c i a t i o n . The first case of home town association of members of Beta Theta Pi was that of Founders James George Smith and David Linton. The latter lived near Waynesville, Clinton County, Ohio, which also was the postoffice address of Smith, who lived three miles out in the country. W

hen

ank

how one day Colonel John

A good Beta W orld W ar story tells Simpson, Miami ’99, known to his Beta friends

orgotten.

BETA LORE

4-16

always as “Jerry,” was giving out orders surrounded by his aides, all of whom were captains. Just .then one of his own chapter boys, Marvin Pierce, Miami ’ r6, hove in sight. Colonel Simpson called out to him, “ Hello, Monk” and the reply came back quickly, “ Hello, Jerry!” The captains looked as tonished at hearing such familiarity from a first lieutenant. And Pierce went over and said to the Colonel, “ I fear I should not have addressed you the way I did but you took me by surprise,” whereat Colonel Simpson replied, ‘ If you had not addressed me in the way you did I should have gone over and kicked the devil out of you.” W h e n F r a t e r n i t i e s C o u n t . During the World W ar a Toronto news paper published this paragraph: “ Like the public schools of England the Greek-letter fraternities of Can ada have made a splendid response to the call to arms. The Toronto chap ter of Beta Theta Pi has special reason to feel proud of its record which shows that about 75 per cent of its number have enlisted and gone overseas since the beginning of the war. O f these, nine have given up their lives, seven were awarded the Military Cross, and three, Lieut-Col. H. F. H. Hertzberg, Captain A. G. Knight (since killed), and Major J. A. Morphy, all graduates in Applied Science, have received the D.S.O. The Toronto chapter is one of seventy-nine formed in American and Canadian universities since the founding of the fraternity in 1839. When war broke out the local Betas would have been compelled to close their house at 126 St. George Street, had it not been for the financial assistance given by the central or ganization, which has already advanced $5,000. Betas in the United States say that they are determined to keep the Toronto chapter going, even if it necessitates the closing of the houses south of the border, so that members invalided from the front will have a home to which they may return. A l ready there are several returned Betas staying in the St. George Street house, and as nearly all the other local fraternities have been obliged to close up their homes, the Beta Theta Pi has extended hospitality to some of their soldier members also. Only men ineligible for service are now being initiated by the Betas, who proudly boast that none of their number has been con scripted.”

While traveling in China, Captain George M. Chandler, Michigan ’98, had his attention called to a poem of the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.— a.d. 25), a translation of which is: T

ragon.

“ When the dragon comes, o h ! The wind stirs and sighs. When the dragon goes, o h ! The wind also is still.” That was the affectionate name by which his Beta contemporaries always referred to Amandus Newton Grant, De Pauw ’74, who died in Indianapolis, February 25, 1926. He was one of three Beta brothers, another of whom, John Henry Grant, Michigan ’82, was a regent of the University of Michigan from 1909 to 1913 when he died. In the seventies of the last century, “ Old Red Hot” was a commanding figure in Beta Theta Pi administrative circles, serving as General Secretary, 1873O

ot.

ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS

417

1875, while still an undergraduate. His college work was delayed somewhat owing to his enlistment as a private in the 154th Indiana Volunteers in the Civil War. He was corresponding secretary of Delta chapter and was its delegate to the epoch-making Richmond Convention of 1872 and to the Cincinnati Convention of 1873. A t Richmond he introduced a petition for a chapter at the University of Kansas. A t Cincinnati he was an active delegate serving as chairman of the committee on the report of the Gen eral Secretary, as chairman on arrangements for the next Convention, and on other committees on permanent organization and on magazine. He led the opponents of eastern expansion in a lively debate on fraternity policy. Though still a senior in college he was elected General Secretary of the fraternity for 1873-1874. In this capacity he called the Evansville Con vention of 1875 to order, then being the delegate from Lambda chapter, whose new birth following an Ann Arbor visit in February, 1875, he proudly announced in his annual report, with “ three local alumni, two sophomores, and two freshmen,” he himself being one of the alumni, as he was studying for his profession in the Michigan law school from which he received his LL.B. degree in 1876. A t Evansville he was a leading spirit, working on committees on constitution and laws, on credentials, on corresponding secre taries, and on the fraternity magazine (then called newspaper). He ad dressed the Convention “ in answer to enthusiastic calls.” His annual re port included a code for the conduct of the General Secretary’s office, called “ Grant’s Code” in a later convention, which was framed in January, 1874, and became the substantial basis for subsequent constitutional pro visions. The relative weakness of Beta Theta Pi in 1875 is suggested by his bill for office expenses during the year, “ for printing, stationery, postage, telegrams, etc., $36.65.” A t the Detroit Convention of 1877 Grant was made chairman of the committee to solicit from alumni subscriptions for a new catalogue, and was made one of the famous committee of three, headed by M ajor W yllys C. Ransom, to rewrite the constitution of the fraternity, eliminating from it everything of ritualistic significance, trans ferring this to a separate ritual, and preparing the remainder of the con stitution for publication to the world. He worked on this committee at Port Huron, Michigan, in March, 1878, and signed its report which was presented to the Indianapolis Convention of 1878, which he attended as a visitor from Kokomo, Indiana, giving the same home address as a visitor to the Chicago Convention of 1881. A t a later time he moved to Indianapolis where he practiced his profession for many years. He retained until his death an unbounded enthusiasm and zeal for Beta Theta Pi. T h e B e t a N a m e . The use for many years on the cover of the fra ternity magazine of the Greek letters of the fraternity name has caused considerable disturbance among the employees of the United States post office, as they have sent notifications of changes of address. The most common translation is “ Bnta Ontalli.” Mention of some of the attempts at determining the name brought to the magazine some interesting reports. Herbert Taylor, Wisconsin ’23, who later affiliated with the chapter at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told of a letter received at the Beta Theta Pi house, in Brookline, Massachusetts, addressed to Mrs. Betty Pi. Dunlap C. Clark, Chicago ’ 17, mentioned a letter which came to the Chicago chapter house addressed to Mr. T. P. Beta. A fter some study

418

BETA LORE

it was concluded that circularization had been done through the use of tht telephone directory, names being taken in order, as Bestrand, Jos.; Beta Theta P i; Betak, T. W ., etc. When this was published, there came a note from Marshall P. Drury, K nox ’70, which said: “ The breezy article on The Beta Name in the April, 1924, issue calls to mind an incident of the 1873 convention. W e had some fine speeches; but the best of all was on the Diamond of Betaism.’ On the following morning a leading daily solemnly referred to it, as an address on the ‘Scanione of Betaisne.’ W e readily understood why the faculty and the ‘barbs’ would oppose an or ganization with a slogan like that, but to us on the inside it was verv funny.”

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w&SSM K A N S A S S E M I-C E N T E N IA L S O U V E N IR B e t a B e a n s . The Dakota chapters have a Sunday evening meeting which was first planned to aid in developing a more friendly feeling on the campus. It is called “ Beta Beans.” Chapter friends of the fair sex are invited to the house. The “ eats” consist of Boston brown bread, baked beans, coffee, and dessert. A fter this feature of the program is over all gather around the big fireplace and sing Beta songs. The girls join in the singing and so learn to know many songs. The popular ones are “ Dear Old Beta Theta Pi,” “ Marching Along,” “ In the Old Porch Chairs,” “ Beta Postcript,” “ Beta Sweetheart,” and the “ Loving Cup.” Together with these are sung many old songs that have long been sung in the chapter such as “ Brother Noah,” “ Napoleon,” and others.

A D i a r y N o t e . Pater Knox, on his way South in 1841, kept a diary. The book has two Beta references, both dated October 25, 1841, one ap parently being a more extended rewrite of the other. They read, “ Left home in the stage for Cincinnati on my way to the South. Reached the city in time for supper. Attended a meeting of the Cincinnati chapter of Beta

ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS

419

Theta Pi. Bought me a Bible for which I paid $1.00.” “ W e reached Cin cinnati a little before night and stopped at Noble’s— did very wrong in not going to Uncle D. Martin’s as in duty bound. Met Wilson of the ‘three stars’ and attended him down street where I met some brothers of the concern and spent a pleasant evening, take it altogether.” Robert William Wilson graduated from Miami in 1840. The sentiment which has made many an alumni gathering a success evidently was an influence in Beta Theta Pi within two years after the fraternity was founded. This faded group picture, barely lend ing itself to reproduction, hangs in the chapter hall of Alpha Rho at Washing ton and Lee University. It was pre. '* sen ted to the chapter by Jack F. Ross of Mobile, Alabama, a member of the former Alpha Theta chapter of Virginia Military Institute. It shows the chapter, then called Theta Theta, as it was in ^ V ■ 'f 1870, and practically is the only extant physical evidence of the existence of the chapter. The Greek letters 6 6 are faintly visible in the center above the little badge, j ^ Js9| while clasped hands below the emblem Jt*~. 3A a 1 jH t do not show. The faces, reading across * •H - ■ -- *. in each row from left to right, are those \ v . of N. B. Noland, Edmonds, C. P. Noland; Tuller, Fairfax, Clark, Powell; McCormick, Heath, Menafee, Stacker; K irk land, Smith, Fairfax, M aury; Taylor, v .M .I. C H A P T E R 1870 Beverly and Ross. The picture was pho tographed with some difficulty by O. Norris Smith, Washington and Lee ’29. A L i n c o l n I t e m . William Allen Pusey, Vanderbilt ’85, made a gift to the Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Woman’s Club, for the purpose of having a bronze tablet placed on the Court House square in memory of Sarah Bush Lincoln, foster mother of Abraham Lincoln. The tablet rests on a limestone base taken from the Mill Creek farm purchased by Thomas Lin coln, September 2, 1803. Dr. Pusey has written an important monograph on the famous Wilderness Road. Using a little poetic license, as he recalled the original plan to have nine founders, Charles M. Hepburn, Virginia ’80, published some lines on Our Silver Grays in the Beta Theta P i for Sep tember, 1889. The poem was called out by the semi-centennial of the fraternity: In truth, they builded better than they knew, Our founders nine, when in the quiet shade, A t old Miami, thoughtfully they laid Our Order’s cornerstone in friendship true. And well thereon our elder brothers, through O

S il v e r

G rays.

420

BETA LORE A long half-century, built with care, nor made Account of toils for friendship, ne’er afraid O f high ideals, nor slow with honor due. How fair the labor of their loving hands Appears to us, who on this later day Assume the work by them so well begun. And when complete the stately structure stands, M ay those who judge us then right gladly say, As we of our own Silver Grays, “Well done.”

Brother Hepburn, son of Andrew D. Hepburn, Washington and Jefferson ’51, and himself father of three Beta sons, was editor of the fraternity magazine from 1883 to 1893. He was director or trustee of the fraternity from 1886 to 1895.

M Y S T IC A L SE V E N A T C E N T E N A R Y C O L L E G E , 1855-56

This picture shows three members of the mystical seven at Centenary College, Jackson, Louisiana, in 1855-56. Reading left to right they are George Spencer Mayo, ’56, T. Wilbur Compton, ’56, and Robert J. Perkins, ’56. Each displays the seven-pointed badge of the fraternity. The emblems of the Mystics are in evidence: the skeleton hand, the cauldron, the skull, the sword, the spoon. Mayo seems to have added a huge pistol. Each of the three fought in the armies of the Confederate States of America and each died for the cause.

ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS

421

A t a banquet in his honor, given by the New York alumni on March 24, 1905, Edward C. Stokes, Brown ’83, then Gov ernor of New Jersey, in finishing his speech, said: “ Let us, in the spirit of the true Beta, seek to find the good in our fellows and uplift them to higher planes. It is said that in the olden days of Greece, when Athens was the queen city of the world, there stole over the Athenian mind a desire to have some sign or symbol to represent their grandeur and greatness. The idea once advanced spread like fire among those patriotic and susceptible people. A meeting of the Ecclesia was called, and it was decided to have a statue of marble to represent their conception. Accord ingly, a committee was appointed to wait on the great sculptor of the day and ask him to undertake the work. He accepted the task and set about the labor. When he was done the statue fascinated the eyes of all beholders by the beauty of its proportions. It was the figure of a hovering angel; but it had one apparently curious defect. It was an angel without wings. Again the committee went to the sculptor, this time in complaint, and asked for an explanation of this curious defect. A fter listening to the committee, the old sculptor said: ‘Sires, it is as I intended. I made the statue not only to represent your grandeur and greatness, but to typify a hope of the people as well. And so I left the statue without wings, depriving it of the power of flight that it might not depart, but should abide with you for ever.’ So now, as we gather here in the brotherhood of Beta Theta Pi fra ternity, let us, in the spirit which permeates that order, resolve that we will so act and live that Beta Theta Pi and its influence shall not depart; but, like the Wingless Victory, abide with us forever.” T

bid in g

S p ir it .

A W ar-T im e I n c i d e n t . In January 1914 Walter Willoughby Snyder of Tau chapter at Wabash College was compelled, for financial reasons, to drop out of college. He returned to his home in Cleveland where he ob tained the rather unusual position of traveling for a steel rat trap company. But this existence was too slow for our hero. For the first twelve years of his life he had lived in Siam, and as summer came his adventurous soul began to yearn for the Orient. Then in August the war came. It offered him just the chance he had been waiting for; at least Europe was nearer Siam than Ohio was. News came that Canada was in dire need of recruits. So Brother Snyder threw down his rat traps and took up the sword, be coming a soldier of His Majesty. For eight months he drilled in the Cycle Corps, No. 31, in the hilly country about London, Ontario. Then the orders came for the trip overseas. For two months more he drilled on the vast Salisbury Plain in England. A t last the orders came. He was sent to the front. Until this time he had written quite regularly to his classmates in T a u ; but, after a brief card explaining that he was at last seeing active service, no word was heard from him for five months. Early in October a letter came, written in the very trenches. Every word of it was interesting, but the following incident was especially so. In his own w ords: “ One after noon I was lying here in my dugout reading Life. Just the thing for the trenches, for ‘where there is life there is hope.’ Whizz— W hom p!! My head popped out like a turtle’s and the oft repeated question escaped my lips, ‘Where’d that one go?’ Instantly I forgot all about the shells and bombs. There, cut in the clay of the trench wall opposite me, and almost

422

BETA LORE

worn smooth were the Greek letters “ B © n . ” It gave me a thrill such as nothing ever did. To think that, even though I am stuck way over here in this war-ridden country the emblem that I love had followed me. Who this Beta could be who had evidently once occupied this same dug-out has puzzled me often since then. Pei haps he was a Toronto University man. Or, may be, he was another ne’er-do-well like myself who succumbed to wanderlust. May “ Wooglin watch over him!” ;

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90. i<0nc of the sm all group njat laid tljc fo u n d a tio n s to jjro&uee loyal stnbcnte ani) atuniiii.IL ianl> ljelpe& to ■shape Mje e h a ra e fe r an& pollr g of ohm Uma JBater : an alum nus aluwgs strong an& i rfeeMit**® | a s a leaser for a g re a te r ^Frnrt £>tate: a trirm bcr ]o f ftje ‘SoarJ* of »Tmetres s in rr J ^ S ra n ? !!)«■oniu lahnrinus to hawe served a-? JVesiSrnl of tljat Soaro.j [<Jane 13, 1927,

■

Copy of Engrossed Parchmerit Presented with Gold W atch to Judge Mitchell, ’go, at Alumni Dinner, June 13, 1927

H. H. J O H N S O N , Miami ’40

The Reverend Henry Hunter Johnson, Miami ’40, No. 9 on the Alpha chapter roll, the first initiate after the fraternity was es tablished and the one originally in mind to make up the mystic nine, died in St. Edwards, Nebraska, January 18, 1881, in his sixtieth year. He was a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church. He had a charge at Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, 1862-1864, and was a stated supply at Leyden Center in 1867. Illness at in tervals prevented him from regular ser vice in the ministry. On the day of his death he officiated at the funeral of two children. On his way home he com plained of illness, was assisted into the house, and, within twenty minutes after pronouncing the benediction in the ser vice mentioned, he, too, was dead. Thus an often expressed desire to die in the harness was realized. He was buried in Chicago, Illinois. H

enry

unter

Jo h n so n .

THE BELL SONG

423

S t e p h e n s C room’s B adge. A Beta pin which antedates the Civil W ar has been presented to the fraternity by Mr. W . W . Croom and his son, Stephens Croom, of Mobile, Alabama. It will be handed down from one president of Beta Theta Pi to another, as the years pass by. The pin was worn in college by Cicero Stephens Croom, North Carolina ’59. During the Civil W ar he was a major in the Confederate States Army, attached to the staff of General Forney. Throughout the entire period of the war he wore his Beta pin beneath his soldier's uni form. The picture shows it as it was before the official jeweler had repaired it.

THE BELL SONG F

rank

J. K

ent,

Bethany

’02

A Bethany College Song A tower on a hillside that prays to the sky, A bell in the tower, and to us below, A summons, repeated by Echo’s reply, Melodious monotone, steady and slow. Chorus The bell in the tower is ringing, And Bethany’s children respond to her ca ll; They march on the corridor singing: ‘‘Old Beth’ny, we love thee, thou fairest of all.” In memory vibrating each of us hears The Mentor that speakes from the old tower’s height Entreating our loyalty, shaming our fears, Our solace when vanquished, our strength in the fight. The Faith of the Founder it tells, and the gold O f time-tested friendship, recalling our love To days long ago, and the memories old O f Bethany’s hills, and her tower above. Upraised is each hand while together we sing, In praise of the college that stands on the hill, And pledge that so long as the old bell shall ring Her faith we will cherish, her precepts fulfill.

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BETA LORE

T H E W A S H IN G T O N C O L LEGE CH A PTER T H E R H O O F B E T A T H E T A PI 1870-71 From the top in order, left to right, McClung, Lacy, E. Berkley, Professor Adler, L. Berkley, Thom, Robinson, Barclay, Conrad, Cabell, Roberts, K en nedy, Hanna, Myers.

BETAS AND SIGMA CHI’S BEGINNING In Joseph Cookman Nate’s History of the Sigma Chi Fraternity, by which in seven splendid volumes the story of one of the “ Miami Triad” is to be told in great detail, the relationships with competing fraternities are freely and fairly discussed. How Beta Theta Pi played a part in the unfolding history of Sigma Chi is indicated, by several incidents related by Dr. Nate. The Western fraterni ties at Oxford, he says, were more intolerant of the newcomer than the Eastern ones were, seeming to feel some degree of jealousy because of “ the appearance of a new claimant for a crown heretofore peculiarly their own. There was a period of cold-shouldering, during which conditions often were sensitive.” T h en : “ One night when the chapter met for regular session at Lockwood’s room, they found that the place had been entered, his trunk broken into, and that the tin box containing the Constitution— Ritual, seals and records had been stolen. W ith the more generous fraternalism of later years, the found

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425

ers came to agree that the perpetrators of this act were never positively identified. But a growing feeling between Sigma Chi and Beta Theta Pi at the time threw prompt suspicion on the latter. There was a bit of detective work involved in the rather fixed opinion of the Sigs as to the one responsible for their loss. Diligent search discovered the tin box, buried in the timber portion of the spacious campus. The box was empty except for a few less important matters and its principal contents were never found. But it had been cut open by a heavy blade as of a large bowie-knife and by whom else was this execrable rudeness committed but by the one student in college— an adventurous Southerner— known for his custom of carrying such an instru ment of destruction. And to what fraternity did he belong but Beta Theta P i !” That the bitterness was sharp is illustrated by another story: One day at chapel Ulysses Thompson Curran, ’56, described as “a Beta Senior, sturdy of build and for whose physical prowess the whole college had respect,” made fun of the badge of the new fraternity. Benjamin Piatt Runkle re sented the insult, and in the chapel aisle after prayers were said the two mixed in an old-fashioned fist fight. O f course the hero triumphed over the villain according to the Sig account, he having right and truth on his side. What the Beta version was is not known. The two fighters were suspended on March 10, 1856, until M ay 10, “ and required to return immediately to their respective homes,” as the letter of discipline said. In 1908 the two met at the Miami Commencement, General Runkle then a trustee of Miami, Judge Curran the orator of the Alumni Association. The two clasped hands, the Judge remarking that Sigma Chi and the country were greatly indebted to him for having given the General his first lesson in military tactics, namely to strike early and often. Judge Curran was the author of the legend of the Beta temple described in another place under “ The Catalogue Frontis piece.” But, behind the bitterness of those formative days, there was whole some respect for each other, both individually and collectively. This is clearly shown by the cases of Samuel Watts Davies, ’59, and John Calvin Lewis, ’60, both of whom joined Beta Theta Pi before they graduated, giving up membership in the younger fraternity. Davies, who later became a cap tain in the United States Army, and, as a Beta, had a good deal to do with the Wooglin Club on Lake Chautauqua, was initiated by Sigma Chi, October 17, 1855. He figured in the first dual initiation, members in those days being admitted singly as a rule and not in groups, classes or delegations as now. Lewis was initiated into Sigma Chi, February 4, 1857. For many years he was one of the active and enthusiastic members of the Chicago (Alpha) Alumni Association of Beta Theta Pi. Their cases were not just alike. The badge of Sigma Phi, as the fraternity was first called, made its initial appearance on Commencement Day, Thursday, June 28, 1855, the date considered as the founding day. Because of a number of difficulties the parent chapter became inactive at Commencement time in 1858. Davies, who was a fine student and honor man of his class, joined Beta Theta Pi by the “ lifting” route. His name was partly erased from the roll and over it a slip was pasted “ a wrong name was written here.” There probably was some bitterness, even with the Sig chapter apparently on the rocks. But,

426

BETA LORE

with a fine spirit of courtesy, Dr. Nate tells the story frankly, publishes a picture of Captain Davies and pays him proper tribute as a man. The case of Captain Lewis was unattended by much ill-feeling. He dropped out of college for a year on account of poor health. When he re turned there were no Sigs in college; so, in the winter term of his senior year, he joined Beta Theta Pi. Both he and Captain Davies always respected their former fraternity and their comrades therein. On other pages is told o f the initiative of Captain Lewis in connection with “The Burial of Joel Battle.” This story is published in Volume II of the Sigma Chi history, which shows a picture of the Beta boy who died at Shiloh. It may be that, in the formative days the assaults of the rude Beta vandals were good things for Sigma Chi. If the Betas were the burglars who penetrated the sanctum sanctorum and removed the arcana, they really did Sigma Chi a favor. F or there was a revamping of the ConstitutiopRitual and a restatement of principles and ideals and, more important yet, a change of name from Sigma Phi, already in use by an Eastern fraternity for a quarter of a century. Thus Sigma Chi escaped the Kappa Alpha tangle.

BETAS AND DELTA TA U DELTA’S BIRTH According to records preserved in the Beta Theta Pi house at Bethany there were six members of Psi chapter who had a part in the origin of Delta Tau Delta. These were Thomas Tilghman Holton, Benjamin Smith Keene, William Randolph Cunningham, Jacob S. Lowe, John Lucius Hunt, and Jabez Hall. O f these, Lowe and Cunningham later gave up their mem bership in Beta Theta Pi and chose to be counted founders of Delta Tau Delta. The essential facts are set forth in two letters which never have been printed before. On August 30, 1880, Cunningham, writing from Index, Cass County, Missouri, to William R. Baird, said: “ B r o t h e r B a i r d : Yours of the eighteenth is in my possession. Absence from home prevented me from answering you sooner. It will always give me pleasure to furnish you any information in my possession that will assist you as an author and historian but I cannot consent to your conclusion that the opposition to Phi Kappa Psi at Bethany ‘took the shape of a literary clique called Delta Tau Delta to offset the Greek name of Phi Kappa Psi.’ If A.' T. Pope regarded Delta Tau Delta as a clique, he never so expressed it to me. “ It is true that I know more of the origin of Delta Tau Delta than arty other man; for I called its first meeting; was its first chairman; made the first speech as to its objects; was the originator of its unwritten work; and also largely assisted in shaping its constitution and by-laws. Opposition to cliques was one of the reasons for establishing Delta Tau Delta, and nothing in connection with its teachings and practices will justify you in publishing it as a ‘literary clique.’ The students of Bethany whom I knew in connection with Beta Theta Pi have a warm place in my heart; but I cannot give them a preference over^ those who co-operated with me in Delta Tau Delta in its origin. “ The following quotation from your letter accounts for your trouble in regard to Delta Tau Delta: ‘What puzzles me is the development of Delta Tau Delta from a loose, local, literary clique into a fraternity.’ Your

BETAS AND DELTA T A U DELTA’S BIRTH

427

trouble arises from considering it a ‘loose literary clique,’ whereas its un written as also its written work could in no sense justify the application of looseness to it. “Until recently I have not possessed the knowledge of the proportions of my child; but now being in the possession of the facts, I must inform you that I cannot consistently act with Beta Theta Pi. Not that I have any feelings of unkindness toward any of them, but from the fact that I con sider Delta Tau Delta as standing upon principles equal to those of any fraternity, and also from the fact that I was the leader in its establishment at Bethany College, the place of its origin. It will give me pleasure at any time in assisting you to a correct history of matters above referred to. “ With high regard, W . R. C u n n i n g h a m “ P.S. I will in a few days send you $1.50 for your book which, as yet, I have never seen.” The other founder who left Beta Theta Pi was Jacob S. Lowe. On December 28, 1891, he wrote from Shelby, Ohio: “ I asked the chapter at Bethany that I be allowed to withdraw from Beta Theta Pi, because I was one of the founders of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity and did not think it right to be a member of both. This request was made in 1882. My understanding is that it was granted.” A little time before this, he wrote: “ As to my name in the catalogue, I know so little of the society and feel myself almost entirely an outsider. I don’t really think it worth your while to print it.” The second letter was written from Bloomington, Illinois, on February 23, 1911, by Thomas T. Holton, who, addressing Francis W . Shepardson at Chicago, stated: “ In reference to the Delta Tau Delta I cannot now give you exact dates, but I can give you facts that will set all our Beta fellows right. The Delta Tau Delta was instituted at Bethany, its first chapter, its origin, being there, quite a while before the Beta chapter was thought of or organized. During the session of 1858-1859 or 1859-1860, the last I think is correct, the Phi Psi society was instituted and obtained such a large membership that many students not in the order felt that the rest of us were put at a disadvantage, and that, in various ways, the Phi Psi membership was able to boost its fel lows regardless of merit. “ Mr. Campbell and many students were opposed to college secret fra ternities. It was not in defiance to this feeling that some of us instituted the Delta fraternity, but to see that justice was done, and, you may say, for protection. W e had no intention of founding an order. When, several years after leaving college, I found chapters here and there were being in stituted, I was surprised. W e went over to West Liberty where was an academy and initiated a lot of boys for the sport of it. W e manipulated for most of the whole night. They were anxious to wear the pins and we allowed them to do so. “ The whole idea was local. M y roommate, William R. Cunningham, chose the Greek letters significant of our purpose. A. C. Earle and myself got up the pin with the help of J. R. Challen of Philadelphia. Later on the interest flagged. Alfred T. Pope, who was made a Beta at Hanover College,

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BETA LORE

near Madison, Indiana, came to Bethany about this time. He and J. H. Bates were roommates. Erasmus Frazier and I had become roommates, Cunningham having left school. Ben Keene and Dick Ricketts were hail fellows, well met, with us. A. T. Pope, known as ‘Little Jim/ because his first recitation in the Neotrophian literary society was the poem so called, ‘The cottage was a thatched one, etc./ was anxious to establish a Beta chap ter at Bethany. So he got a few of us together and we went to Washington, Pennsylvania, and were initiated there and thus became the nucleus of the chapter at Bethany. “ I am not sure that I can name all that were initiated at Washington. Bates, Frazier, Keene and myself I am sure of, and I think Holtzclaw and Thurmond were along, and, I may add, Ricketts, Hall, Hunt, Smith, Pinker ton, and Weatherly came in soon after. Professor Waugh of Washington College looked after us in Beta style. “ So you see the Delta Tau Delta had largely done its intended work before the Beta chapter was thought of. Those of us who had been in the Delta fraternity supposed it had largely served its purpose, and feeling a desire to connect ourselves with an old and well-established fraternity that was careful and select in its membership, united with the Betas. T

homas

T. H

olton”

BETAS AND THE FIJI PIG DINNER According to the History of Phi Gamma Delta, by William F. Chamber lin at the Class Day exercises of the University of California in 1893, the “ dispensator” who was a “ F iji” took occasion to rap the Betas and Dekes who had monopolized the university glee club during the college year just closing. The stunt consisted in bringing on the platform a barrel labeled “ U. of C. Glee Club” and tied with a cord symbolic of the strangle-hold es tablished by these two rival societies. Out of this barrel, to complete the figure, tumbled a squealing pig. Some say that the pig escaped and was pursued at this point by underclassmen Fijis with murderous intent. A t any rate, that night the pig was incarcerated in the lower regions of the Fiji stronghold on Dana Street, while Frank Norris staged an elaborate cere mony worthy of the burnt offering. The date set was May 18, at 6:00 p . m ., at which time twenty F iji tribesmen foregathered at the banquet board and made the Delta realm resound with “ All hail the pig.” The master of ceremonies then called upon every member present to renew his bond of allegiance, fidelity, and alliance, and to seal his vow on bended knee by the solemn ordeal of kissing the pig’s snout. Another version of it was given in the P hi Gamma Delta for March, 1913, where it is said that the dis pensator called a prominent Beta member of the Glee Club to the front of the stage, gave him a hold upon the cord emerging from the barrel, and told him to pull. The resultant squealing from within the barrel demon strated the point of the “ Pi-biters” pull in the glee club, the little, black pig parodying the Beta influence in the organization.

BETAS AND SORORITY FOUNDINGS

429

A ZETA PSI PROPOSITION The investigations of Shelby B. Schurtz, Michigan, in preparation of his history of Lambda chapter, Beta Theta P i at Michigan, appear to have cleared up the hitherto uncertain story about a proposed union of Beta Theta Pi and Zeta Psi just after the Civil War. John A . Kellar, Hanover ’65, with four other Betas went to Michigan in 1865-1866 and kept Lambda chapter going. Through him the proposition of uniting with Zeta Psi was made to Beta Theta Pi by the Michigan chapter of Zeta Psi. This was just after the desertion of the “ filler” men in Michi gan chapter of Beta Theta Pi to Psi Upsilon. Michigan chapter of Zeta Psi had been hard hit by the Civil War. It had only two men in the class of ’65, and its classes of ’66 and ’67 were mostly in the law department (where John A . Kellar w as). In 1862 twelve men had withdrawn from Michigan chapter of Zeta Psi on account of internal differences, so the Michigan chap ter of Zeta Psi in 1866 thought here was a good chance to join Zeta Psi with its Eastern chapters to Beta Theta Pi with its Western and Southern chapters, and incidentally build up a strong joint Michigan chapter as well as a real national fraternity. On April 12, 1866, William W . Eastman, Hanover, wrote to W . F. Boyd, Ohio, that “the proposition comes from Zeta Psi herself through Brother John A . Kellar.” The treachery of the desertion of the “ fillers” in Lambda chapter, however, and the questionable activities of the Western Reserve chapter were so fresh in the minds of the other chapters of Beta Theta Pi that the Conventions of 1866 and 1871 voted it down without much con sideration. That of 1866 declared: The question o f the proposed union with Zeta Psi being agitated, the Convention swept it entirely away by declaring their intention never to unite with any other secret society in a manner demanding any surrender of identity.

The matter came up again in 1871 and was finally settled, the group of enthusiasts who united in the determination that Beta Theta Pi should not die, in spite of war losses and desertions of traitors at Michigan and Western Reserve, having begun to make its influence felt. The Convention of 1871 adopted the following report: “ Your Committee on Foreign Relations beg leave to submit the follow“A fter a thorough investigation of the subject we have come to the con clusion that an alliance with an Eastern fraternity at the present time is both impracticable and unnecessary; and although temporarily weakened by the defection of Beta and Lambda, that we have by no means lost our hold in our own territory, the South and W est; and if individual Betas and the different chapters will only keep in view V irgil’s Labor omnia vincit, that our future is secure, and the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity will rise to a still higher position of influence and power.”

BETAS AND SORORITY FOUNDINGS In the official historical statement about Alpha Chi Omega printed in Baird’s Manual of American College Fraternities (Eleventh Edition, page 240) the opening sentence is, “ Alpha Chi Omega was founded at De Pauw

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BETA LORE

University, October 15, 1885, with the assistance of Dr. Tames G. Camp bell, Beta Theta Pi.” In the same volume (page 274), relative to the founding of Kappa Alpha Theta, it is said: “ Kappa Alpha Theta was organized at Indiana Asbury University (now De Pauw ), Greencastle, Indiana, January 27, 1870. The moving spirit was Bettie Locke, ’7 1...............” In the Kappa Alpha Theta early in 1924 an article was published entitled, “ To Greencastle for History.” It told of the first four girls to enter Indiana Asbury University in the fall of 1867, two of whom, Bettie Locke and Alice Allen, were among the founders of the first Greek-letter society for women. One paragraph read: “ Bettie Locke’s father, Dr. John W . Locke, was a professor of mathe matics at Asbury during the time Bettie was in college. He was a member of Beta Theta Pi, and it was he who suggested to her, ‘W hy don’t you or ganize a fraternity of your own?’ when the Phi Gamma Deltas had asked her to wear their pin and she had refused because she could not wear it as an initiated member. So that was how it began, and many days and hours Bettie spent with her friend, Alice Allen, compiling a constitution and planning a pin and deciding what other girls they should ask to share the wonderful undertaking with them. I saw that original constitution, written in cipher if you please, in the back of the first secretary’s book of Kappa Alpha Theta. The book is a small red notebook, with the word ‘Record’ printed in gold on the cover. Herein are inscribed the minutes of the early meetings and the names of early members in the order of their initiation. That first little constitution is very short, far different from our compilation of constitution and statutes of the present day. It provides that the Alpha chapter shall be the mother chapter and seat of government of the fraternity, and this method was followed until 1885.” To this statement from Kappa Alpha Theta itself may be added that a study of the Kappa Alpha Theta badge, with its stars, its three Greek letters, and its use of the Greek notation for 1870, the year of the founding, is suggestive of Beta influence in its design.

THE CATALOGUE FRONTISPIECE The story of the frontispiece to the catalogue of the fraternity is one of unusual interest. If fully narrated its ramifications would be surprising. It begins at Williams College, the eastern outpost of Beta Theta Pi, on November 29, 1847, when Alonzo P. Carpenter, later for seventeen years justice of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire, wrote to R. Vance Moore of M iam i: “ I have for a long time been thinking of the propriety of publishing a catalogue o f our association next fall. I have no sort of an idea of the whole number of our members, but should think we might get out a fair one. O f course we should have a splendid steel engraving as a frontispiece. And I think we have abundant room to conjure up one ‘par excellence,’ considering the three stars, the diamond and the wreath. Y ou have probably seen the Alpha Delta Phi catalogue. If so, you will at once understand my idea. I think there might be some way o f letting the Jefferson chapter remain secret as to its existence, as, for instance, publishing the names o f members of that chapter in secret characters.”

TH E BETA TEM PLE

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About a year later, November 6, 1848, Carpenter wrote to Charles Beckwith of the Michigan chapter: “ I visited Boston a few days since to see about getting up an engraving for the catalogue. I went to an old and experienced designer and set him to work, explaining to him what we wanted. If he suits us in the design at his first trial we can have the engraving in the course of a few months, say two or three. The whole cost will be not far from $200. The engraving will be done by the New England Bank Note Engraving Company, and we need have no fears but it will be done in the very best style. A s the cost is to be defrayed by voluntary contributions, and as it will be necessary to pay our designer some $20, as soon as he has com pleted the design (provided his first effort proves satisfactory), I wish you, or some one o f your chapter, would take measures to procure subscriptions as soon as possible. I shall send the design to your chapter as soon as I receive it (in the course o f a few days) for your approval.”

This letter, most probably, was similar to those sent to other chapters. The files of the fraternity do not contain any of the answers received by the Williams chapter, but on M ay 16, 1849, George Moore of that chapter wrote Charles Beckwith at Michigan. Announcing his election to be re corder succeeding Carpenter, he continued: “ In regard to the catalogue, however, having understood that some of you western fellows were grumbling about the expense, and seeing that without unanimity we could effect nothing, we, of course, shall do nothing about the matter for the present, trusting however that the time will come when things and members will be more encouraging than they have been hitherto in this abortive attempt at getting up a catalogue which should reflect honor upon the brotherhood to which we claim the privilege' of belonging. So you see the thing is “squashed” for a want of whole heartedness in some of the chapters. I trust that the charge falls not upon the members o f the Beta Theta P i at Ann A rbor.”

The note of impatience in this letter is to be observed, for within two years the Williams chapter had withdrawn from Beta Theta Pi, the dis tance from the other chapters and the lack of a spirit of co-operation being among the reasons which prompted it in leaving the fraternity and making an alliance with Alpha Delta Phi. The Miami committee of 1855 which undertook the publishing of a catalogue under the instruction of the Convention of 1854 may have had copies of these letters before it, along with the stinging recollection of the feeling of the late Williams chapter, that the western chapters were parsimonious and not sufficiently alert for the honor of Beta Theta Pi. A t the Convention of 1854 provision was made for the publication of a catalogue of the fraternity. The first paragraph of the report of the com mittee on catalogue which formed the basis for action declared that the catalogue should contain, “an emblematic illustrated title-page, engraved in the highest style of art, composed of three figures illustrating by their position and expression the sentiment of the motto . . . . with such accompaniment as will be in good taste and expressive of the objects o f the association, the Greek letters Beta Theta Pi . in bold relief just above the figures and the date of organization of the association in small Greek letters just below them.”

Following out the desires of the Convention the Miami chapter appointed a committee on catalogue. On February 14, 1855» Isaac M. Hughes of Miami, writing to Henry W . Beeson of Michigan, said: “ Thruston, M cCleary, and I went down lately into Cincinnati to put the matter [catalogue] into the hands of the engraver and printer, thinking to have it out

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in about six weeks. Prior to going, however, we had managed to get a sight of the catalogues of three o f the best secret societies in the East or I may say (Betas excepted) in the whole union. One of them has a chapter at your college. I forget which but I think the Chi Psis. W e have also found out that the Alphas and Deltas are both getting out new catalogues. I need not say that we are determined to be ahead of all of them. W e are confident that, if we can carry out our present design, ours will be actually superior to all of them. It will cost, however, much more than we had anticipated.”

In 1902, noting the family resemblance of the Sigma Phi and Beta Theta Pi catalogue frontispiece plates, George M. Chandler, Michigan ’98, wrote a letter about it to Major W yllys C. Ransom, Michigan ’48, receiving

M A JO R R A N S O M

the following reply, from St. Joseph, Michigan, under date of June 17, 1902: “M y dear G eo rg e: I am in receipt of your fraternal and interesting favor of the 14th inst. It presents to my notice a matter not by any means new to me, but which has not had a place in my thoughts for a long time. The question you raise is involved in much obscurity, but I will give you all the light that I can with refer ence to it. “ I will just say in passing that, many years since— probably 1877-1880— I was at the home of Theodore B. Chase, ’49, for many years necrologist of the alumni associa tion of the University o f Michigan. He was then living in Detroit. H e was a Sigma Phi, although his chapter was not established at Ann A rbor until several years after he graduated. Upon the occasion of that visit he showed me a catalogue of the Sigm a Phi, and I was at once struck with the almost complete similarity be tween their frontispiece and our own. But, as I well knew that Sigma Phi was a much older fraternity than ours, and that for a certainty as late as 1852 we had no such allegorical picture as a part of our ritual, I hastily concluded that we had in some way been queered by our first catalogue editors, and so I said nothing to Chase about it, thinking that I would go into the matter later. In 1882, when our

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catalogue was completed I sent Chase a copy of it, he agreeing to send me the latest of Sigma Phi in return, which, by the way, I never got. It is certain that Chas:e must have noticed the similarity of the two pictures, but he never mentioned it to me, although we frequently met as long as he lived, and generally discussed our fraternity affairs, as we were close friends. I made up my mind that, for some reason, he did not care to 1 aise a Question as to the title to the picture, although I m yself had reached a conclusion about it. . . . . “ I think there have been made three engravings for the frontispiece. The first was a lithograph and of rather chromo execution. I have a copy of the cata logue fo r which it was made and I preserved the first one printed, 1855. The next engraving was for the catalogue that was edited by Roger Williams, Alpha, in 1870, and was on steel; but it was a poor job. The figures were poor and ill defined, so Seaman and I concluded to have a new engraving. W e first had a Cleveland artist to make a new painting from original drawings, but embodying all the details of the other engravings, and it was a fine w ork of art, costing us, as I now recollect it, more than a hundred dollars.............. From that painting Dreka of Philadelphia made the fine engraving from which was struck the frontispiece used in the catalogues of 1882 and 1899. “That, briefly, is the history o f the picture, so far as Beta Theta Pi has been concerned with it. N ow something about the allegory that goes with it. In 1881, at the Chicago Convention of that year, I responded to a toast, ‘The Gladiators on the W all.’ In preparing for that toast I went pretty exhaustively into the origin of that tradition, as it is called in the early copies of it, and I reached the conclusion that it was not original with Sigma Phi or ourselves, but that it was in fact an adapta tion from the Greek classics to suit the requirements o f the case, and was in the first instance, with the picture illustrating it, with some slight modifications, appro priated bodily by Sigma Phi as the frontispiece and interpretation to their cata logue. W hen we came to publish our first catalogue, I do not doubt that we went to the same concern where the Sigma Phi plate was made, and in some way were induced to accept it for use in our own catalogue, and probably with it was furnished the translation from which was revamped the allegorical interpretation as we use it now. I am convinced that it was an ancient Greek legend. It is perfectly clear that the allegory was no part of our initiation business until the first catalogue was printed. A n early copy of the allegory in my possession says, ‘The tradition is a description of the catalogue frontispiece,’ so, as a matter o f course, it was not written until after the frontispiece had been painted. “But, aside from that, there is something about the tone and matter of the allegory that clearly indicates that it was not part of our own original ritual; and it was not known to Beta Theta Pi at all until the decade 1850-60. It would be interesting to know just what interpretation Sigma Phi gives to the same picture; but assuming that we both worked from the same translation, it would be found that the stories are very similar, differing, only probably in particulars necessary to the needs in the premises of each fraternity. I do not believe for a single moment that our Betas intended to appropriate something belonging to Sigma Phi to their own use w ilfu lly; but the funny situation is the outcome of one of those singular contacts incident to almost every phase of human affairs. I have two or three Sigma Phi friends in Detroit and Monroe that I believe would give me information about this matter, if I asked it, sufficient to clear up the doubts about it; but I have no question but the picture appeared in the Sigma Phi catalogue years before it did in ours. I have made a pretty long story of the picture business and, perhaps, little to your satisfaction, but am o f the opinion that it is the correct solu tion o f the problem involved.”

M ajor Ransom’s conclusion regarding priority was correct; some of his other reflections were not supported by the facts. A high official of Sigma Phi is authority for the statement that that fraternity does not have an allegory to accompany its frontispiece. The plate was used for cata logue purposes only. As to the history of the Sigma Phi plate, Mr. W. T. R. Marvin, of Boston, Massachusetts, wrote in a letter dated in May, 1909: “ The illustration first appeared in the catalogue of Sigma Phi in the catalogue dated 1846. The plate was engraved by Gimbrede of New Y ork in 1845; the design

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was drawn from data furnished by a member o f the Alpha chapter of New Y o rk to his instructor in drawing, Mr. Lewis Bradley of N ew York. His name and that of the engraver will be found on the plate of 1845. A copy of that plate and catalogue have been in my library for fifty years. The plate was retouched in 1856, was destroyed in the Boston fire of 1872, was re-engraved for the catalogue o f 1891. Bradley also designed the plate of the Chi Psi catalogue with which you are very likely familiar. There are one or two other plates of somewhat similar character, among them that o f Zeta Psi, which had their origin, as I have ascertained, from ours. The Sigma Phi plates have been in my possession for over fifty years.”

Two letters from Albert S. Bard, then president of the Chi Psi fraternity, provide information from that source. The first letter, dated July 25, 1921, to Francis W. Shepardson, president of the Beta Theta Pi, reads: “Recently I learned that Sigma Phi has a steel-engraved plate made by Lew is Bradley who made the Chi Psi plate. Philip J. Ross of Sigma Phi tells me that Beta Theta Pi has a similar plate also made by Bradley. He. also tells me that you looked into the history of the comparative ages of the Beta Theta Pi and Sigma Phi plates and came to the conclusion that the Sigma Phi plate antedates yours. I am intending to look up the catalogues of the fraternities at the public library in the hope o f finding prints from these plates there. I f all three are fairly similar, Lewis Bradley seems to have done rather a thriving business with his idea. The Chi Psi plate goes back to 1847. Mr. Ross says that the Sigma Phi plate appears in their catalogue of 1850, and does not think it appeared in the 1846 catalogue. I should be interested to know more of the Beta Theta P i plate. I hope to have from Mr. Ross when he gets it, some further information about their plate.”

The other letter, dated August 2, 1921, was written to Philip J. Ross of Sigma Phi, with carbon copy to Mr. Shepardson. It reported: “The N ew Y o rk Public Library, at F ifth Avenue and Forty-second Street has a good many fraternity catalogues in its general library. You have probably heard that the W illiam Raimond Baird Library has been given to the New Y o rk Public Library as a fraternity lib ra ry ; but, as I say, the general library already has con siderable fraternity material. The other day I looked up the Sigma Phi catalogues there and found copies of your 1846, 1850 and 1856 catalogues. Their earliest .cata logue is 1846. T hey do not seem to have your 1835 catalogue. The 1846 copy at the library has your plate in the front. Apparently your own copy does not contain the plate. This would seem to dispose of the question as to whether the Sigma Phi plate is the earliest of the plates we know about. It is obviously earlier than the Chi Psi plate which dates, so far as we know, from 1847. The Chi Psi plate originally appeared in my fraternity’s first catalogue of 1849. The plate, however, had been made two years earlier. I have a long and interesting letter from Professor Shepardson, in fact two letters, about the Beta Theta Pi plate and also the Sigma Phi and Chi Psi plates, giving notes of facts and theories of their making. The Beta Theta Pi plate is some years later than either your Sigma Phi plate or my Chi Psi plate. The New Y o rk Public Library had no copy of the Beta Theta catalogue and plate earlier than 1905. This contains a plate engraved by Dreka of Philadelphia, and states that the earliest Beta catalogue was 1855. I have compared the three plates, and while they have a general similarity in spirit and symbolism, they are quite dissimilar in detail. Even the two plates by Lewis Bradley are so dissimilar that neither Sigma Phi nor Chi Psi could justly criticise him for usin£ the same material over again. Lewis Bradley seems to have had nothing to do with the Beta Theta Pi plate. It is possible that the committee of Betas who start ed the Beta plate, or the artist in the engraver’s shop, or connected with the engraver who made the final design, saw a copy of one or both of the earlier engravings. Professor Shepardson thinks this quite possible, but he seems to have no evidence of it as yet. A t any rate none of the three designs can be said to copy each other’s or to be so close as to give rise to criticism of the artists or engravers. It would be perfectly natural that the symbols of fraternity secrecy and ideals should bear some resemblance to each other, exactly as the secrecy and the ideals themselves bear a resemblance. I have not gone to the bottom o f all that

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Professor Shepardson has been kind enough to write me. Its full significance does not come out on a first reading, and I must study it more carefully. I am having it typewritten and will be glad to send you a copy. Meanwhile, summarizing the situation from the catalogues I have seen and from the information in Professor bhepardson s notes, the following seems to be the situation i “Sigma Phi: Artist, Lewis Bradley. Plate engraved by J. N. Gimbrede of N ew Y o rk in 1845; appeared in 1846 catalogue. “ Chi P si: Artist, Lewis Bradley. Plate engraved by Rawdon, W right, Patch and Edson of N ew Y o rk in 1847; first appeared in 1849 catalogue. “ Beta Theta P i: The general idea of the plate sketched by four Betas, which was afterw ards worked out by an artist connected with the engravers, Middleton, W al lace & Company, Cincinnati, about 1854-5. The Convention of 1854, August 17, adopted a minute authorizing a plate to be made for its catalogue issued in 1855. “ Both the original Sigma Phi plate and the original Beta Theta Pi plate have been destroyed by fire Professor Shepardson says. The Sigma Phi plate in a (or the) ^Boston fire of 1872, and the Beta Theta Pi plate in a fire which destroyed P ike’s Opera House in Cincinnati before the Beta Convention of 1856. A new Beta plate was lost in the great Chicago fire of 1871, and the present plate is the one engraved by D reka in 1881, reproducing, however, the earlier plates. This leaves the Chi Psi plate as the second design but the oldest surviving plate, unless my own fraternity’s plate is a reproduction of an earlier lost one, which I do not think. So far as I know our present plate is the original one. I will send Professor Shep ardson a copy of this letter to you. “ P.S. Since writing the above I have a third letter from Dr. Shepardson, in dicating that the Betas did see the Chi Psi plate and perhaps others.”

So much for the frontispiece. It is a curious thing, that for half a century until the national Interfraternity Conference brought the conscious ness of common ideals, symbols and ceremonials, the fact was not revealed that several fraternities cherish as their own, engravings for their catalogues with a remarkable family resemblance, if, indeed, they were not the inspira tion of a single mind. As to the allegory: That is different. There is a letter from the individual most concerned in that. On June 27, 1902, writing from Sandusky, Ohio, to George M. Chandler, Ulysses T. Curran, Miami ’56, said: “ I shall try to answer as well as I can. There was an agreement among the various chapters o f Beta Theta Pi in 1854 or 1855 to the effect that a catalogue of our membership should be attempted. This duty was laid upon Alpha chapter. Our corresponding secretary pressed quite a number o f our brethren into the service and we labored assiduously in the w ork of arranging the book, and we sent to Cin cinnati to, as I remember, the firm of Strobridge & Company, asking for designs for a title-page or frontispiece. Several were submitted. The one I remember best was a design of conventionalized vines, scroll work, very pretty, suitable for Godey’s Lady’s Book. The valiant Betas demanded something more virile, and we returned several designs. W e received a letter which, with some expressions of impatience, suggested that we tell the designer what he wished. I f my memory serves me right, James Taylor, now deceased, General Gates P. Thruston, now of Nashville, Ten nessee, Dickinson P. Thruston, deceased, a young man of remarkable artistic taste and ability, a musician, one altogether lovely in his physical form and mental and moral character, and myself, in a room of General Thruston and Dick, after reading the letter, either rudely sketched or mapped the picture in its main features. I well remember the suggestion made that we incorporate the idea of the vestibule of a Greek temple, to accord with our claim to be Greeks. W here the artist who made the working plans o f the picture we compiled got his inspiration I do not know. H e sent to us the proof of the plate, and I remember one festive youth who, afterward, was found to have latent artistic power, developing in his progeny to a remarkable degree— this one indicated a desire fo r a better development o f the mammary tract o f the confiding damsels that grace the picture. The artist rather overdid the w ork; hence we have a slight defect.

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“ I wish that you would write to my friend, General Gates P. Thruston,, Nash ville, Tennessee, who is a gentleman o f leisure and who, like myself, has not lost all of the poetry of youth. A sk him some suggestive questions. He was the im portant man in the enterprise, a man dear to our hearts. W e called him “ Peggy,” showing our affectionate love for him. “A s to the legend, I can say with the poet, ‘Quorum pars magnum fui.’ The boys of the chapter at Springfield, Ohio, W ittenberg College, wrote me asking for the explanation of the frontispiece. I then lived at Glendale, Hamilton County. The surroundings were of such a nature as to induce poetic feeling in the most pro saic: a running stream in front, another in the rear of the house and a fine grove of tre e s; an old mansion with memories of bygone days of happy life, the sadness of death, a broken family, the property left as a dower to a childless w id o w ; a stormy night. The wind dashing the rain against the windows and vainly assaulting the old brick w a lls; the quiet of a sleeping family, and the solitude fitted for re calling from the dimming past the slowly fading memory of youthful joys. Under these circumstances I arranged the description and interpretation of one of the most beautiful symbolic pictures I ever saw. The result of all this you may know. I have not seen it since, but know the meaning attributed by the poetic souls who composed the chief outlines of the picture, and the details of symbolic meaning that had not yet evolved in our youthful imaginations. The germs of the latent beauty were there without doubt, and years o f training youth in the beauties of Homer and V irg il without doubt evolved those seed germs which were the common prop erty of the ‘Greeks.’ “ It would be quite interesting to me to see ‘The Legend of the Frontispiece’— or is it an oral tradition now? The chapter at W ittenberg might have the original. I attended the grand chapter meeting at Put-in-Bay, and was quite disappointed in not seeing an exemplification of the ritual. “ It matters not what accidental similarity there may be in the temple surroundings. W e were not primary to that, except as to the general suggestion o f the vestibule or portico of a Greek temple. Suppose you should order such a thing today. The artist would go to Greece and borrow the ideas of the living temples, modifying them to suit his requirements. This may have been done by our artist. But we furnished the basal idea. I think the first catalogue was issued in 1855. A great fire consumed our steel plate and the brotherhood had recourse to a lithograph. W e again, it seems, have a steel plate reproduction. I think that the Strobridge house is still in existence. If not, you could learn of its successor, if any, all about the dates. Robert Clarke & Co., book publishers of Cincinnati, would gladly give you any information in their possession about Strobridge & Company if you would use my name. “ It is altogether probable that the Cincinnati engraver borrowed the temple walls from some older picture. W rite to General Gates P. Thruston, using my name. Tell him I have told what I could. A sk him whether or not any of our boys had a copy of the Sigma Phi catalogue, and whether or not any of our committee sent it to our designer or referred him to it. Hoping that this rambling, boyish, reminiscential letter may interest you enough to pay you for the trouble of decipher ing my chirography, I am “Yours in— kai— U. T . C u r r a n ”

The suggestion that a letter be sent to General Thruston was followed. His answer was dated at Beersheba Springs, Tennessee, July 2, 1902, and read: “ D ear B rother : Your letter to me at Nashville followed me up here where I have my summer home. I wish I had a better memory of the events of the long ago relating to the beautiful Beta Theta Pi frontispiece. A s my old friend, Brother Curran, writes, I think he and I were members o f a committee to select a design or emblematic picture for our catalogue. Perhaps James T aylor and my brother Dickinson may have been on the committee also. I think the committee finally consulted and employed a Cincinnati engraver and designer to aid us in our search fo r something beautiful, original, and appropriate. Now that you surprise me by stating that our beloved picture was not an original and quite new design,

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I suspect that the Cincinnati designer was likewise designing and foisted off upon our unsuspecting committee this beautiful and perhaps stolen picture, or partly stolen picture; for I cannot think it was a wholesale theft. I remember that we were so pleased with it that we probably too readily accepted his assumption or state ment as to its originality. W e surely would not have been willing to use or du plicate the pictuie or idea of any sister or rival society, had we dreamed of such a possibility. ' ‘7 esi } ^ as a.n enthusiastic Beta in 1853-4-5. I was recorder o f Alpha chapter at Miami U niversity for a long time. If you will write to the present chapter at O xford, Ohio, and ask fo r all the information our old chapter book, kept there, can furnish, I think you may get a better account of the origin and history of the pic ture than we can give you. I am still a loyal Beta and am glad to be remembered as a veteran o f earlier days. “Yours fraternally and truly in— kai— G. P. T h r u s t o n ”

These two letters being sent to Major Ransom, his answer, with its matured conclusions, will make a fitting end to the story of the frontis piece. Writing from St. Joseph, Michigan, August 19, 1902, he said: “M y D ear B roth er C h a n d ler: Y o u r favor of the 6th inst. with stated en closures was duly received. I have read the latter with great interest and return them to you herewith. I think there can be no doubt as to the correctness of your conclusion— that the frontispiece pictured in our catalogue came from the same original picture that the Sigma Phi was adapted from, and I do not doubt that a thorough search o f the classical books o f engraving at your Newberry or public libraries would show where the Sigs got it. I think it is quite consistent with reasonable probability that the fellows, as they say, on suggesting a design fo r the Cincinnati concern to work from would be likely to think o f a Greek temple about the first thing, as it would seem to be a very suitable design for such a place. W ith that suggestion in view the designer would at once go to classical sources of information for perfecting his picture. Perhaps he came either upon the original from which the Sigma Phi was copied, or what in my opinion is more likely, found somewhere a Sigma Phi catalogue and copied it bodily fo r the Beta committee. I think there can be little question that was the way of it, as you will see by examination of the two pictures that both of them have a glory over the vestibule of the Greek temple, illuminating the Greek letters or name o f the society, 2 $ on theirs, B 0 n on ours. That is the similarity or coincidence that would not have occurred once in a thousand times, and leaves no doubt in my own mind about the two pictures being related to each other............ “W hile the origin of the picture is obscure, I do not doubt for a single moment that any one reading Judge Curran’s letter to you can have any question about his being the author of the legend. The same style o f rhetoric, the same tone of ex pression and flow o f thought that characterized the legend are unmistakably pres ent in the description of the Glendale home in his letter to you, and so exceptional is the style that there can be no mistake about his having written both. I doubt if the Sigs ever used the picture for anything except the embellishment of their catalogue; or that they had any allegorical description of it. I f they did, I am satis fied that it is not at all the same as ours. . . . . ■ “W ith assurances of my most fraternal esteem, as always your elder brother in— kai— W . C. R a n s o m ”

W hatever the origin of the catalogue frontispiece, then, the fact that it has had a cherished place in our fraternity for nearly seventy-five years is sufficient ground for preserving it among the landmarks of Beta Theta Pi.

Chapter X V I I — “ The Long Illustrious Lin e ”

G RAN D FATH ER— FATH ER — SON M

ajo r

G eorge M . C h a n d l e r ,

Michigan ’98

“ O f course you are proud to have your boy pledged to your chapter. Beta Theta P i is noted for this— grandfather-father-son-— membership, and to my notion it is a great tribute to what the organization gives its mem bers, if they are anxious to have their sons and grandsons go the way they did.” So wrote an officer of another fraternity in response to a letter in which I told him of my Commencement W eek at Ann Arbor.

T H E CHANDLERS Edward Bruce Chandler, Michigan ’58, and George M. Chandler, Michigan ’98, the only case of father and son serving the fraternity as members of its Board of Trustees.

The Arm y Reorganization Bill with its single lists for promotion, the thing which couldn’t be worked out and which wouldn’t work— when it had been worked out, one of the Betas in the General Staff of the Army had worked it out and Congress had directed him to make the set-up— was being put into operation. The adjutant general had directed that for two months no leave was to be granted officers excepting under exceptional circumstances. I had put in for leave, the occasion being exceptional, I had explained to my commanding officer, and it had been granted. I had gone home to see my son graduate from high school and had 439

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then taken him back to Ann Arbor for commencement just as my father had returned with me twenty-seven years ago. In 1893 we had driven up to the Beta house in a “ hack,” the same one my father said he had been driven around in during his undergraduate days before the Civil War. As soon as this conveyance had stopped in front of the old vine-covered, red brick .house— I can see it all as plainly as though it were yesterday— Frank Rich, one of the seniors, and his brother Ben, who was afterwards destined to pull me through some sophomore course in engineering, the name of which but not the fact I have forgotten, rushed down the yard, shook hands with father, grabbed our bags and carried them up the lawn. Earl Dow, two years out of college, and just finishing his first year as a member of the faculty, and Lloyd Wentworth, whom I still think the greatest ball player that ever lived— it was his impossible catch that saved the final Chicago game my freshman year— were on the steps, and also shook hands with father, greeted me kindly and showed us up to Went worth’s room which was to be ours for the week. I thought I had never seen such a group of fellows, and in truth, I never had, and later when Frank Rich hooked his arm into mine and commenced to talk, I listened and when he had finished or stopped for breath or something I said, “yes” and he solemnly shook hands with me and said something about “ congratulations.” I do not know that that is the whole story but no one is interested in what my uncle said about his fraternity whose house is still across the street from ours, and where a lot of my closest friends were, or what my cousin and his crowd who lived a hun dred yards down the street told me, or of the bunch across the way whose praises had been sung by some of my best prep school friends. But to return to the doings of the commencement. As my son and I came through the station we fell in with Earl Dow’s son and his mother. Mrs. Dow and Mrs. Chandler had been undergraduates together and mem bers of the same sorority and so Professor Dow’s car replaced the hack of the past generation. The corner of State and Madison streets is just where it always has been but a big vine-covered house of classic design, brick with white columns, years ago replaced the old red one of my time. George Hodges and Waldo Harbert rushed down the lawn, shook hands and carried away the bags, exactly as Frank and Ben Rich had done twenty-seven years before; and Fred and Peter Van Brunt were on the porch as Dow and Wentworth had been. And the next day George Hodges must have said the same thing to my son which Frank Rich had said to me and the boy must have made the same answer, for the same hand shaking ensued and everybody seemed to feel good. Twenty-seven years ago there seemed to follow a song, “ Barbarians we to college came” it must have been, but this year Irving Chapin cranked up the victrola and the song which rolled out was Hayward Peck’s record of Horace Lozier’s “ Oh when our sons to college go, W e ’ll look them squarely in the eye, in the eye;. And say, my boy, the only Greek you’ll have to know Is Beta— Beta Theta P i.”

★ ★ ★

BETA CLANS

BETA CLANS The intermingling of Beta kinship is remarkable. In addition to the family ties described in the kinship lists, a few Beta tribes are indicated, as they have been reported. A Westminster Clan. John Mosby Grant, Westminster ’29, has twentytwo Beta relatives, eighteen of whom are from the Westminster chapter, and the other four from the Washington chapter. Betas from Westminster are: James Nolley Tate, ’73, great-uncle; Edward W . Grant, ’80, uncle; John M. Grant, ’86, uncle; Robert L. Simpson, ’87, un cle;' Benjamin G. Grant, ’92, uncle; Robert M. Cowan, ’94, cousin; Isaac N. Tate, ’99, cousin; Emmett G. Grant, ’98, father; William H. Yates, ’04, cousin; John Yates, ’06, cousin; T. H. Grant, ’07, cousin; G. Garrett Grant, ’20, cousin; W . R. Buckner, ’06, cousin; Jake Buckner, ’ 12, cousin; S. S. Harrison, ’08, cousin; Buckner Harrison, ’05, cousin; Walter F. Henderson, ’05, cousin; Alexander Rice Henderson, ’98, cousin. Those from Washington chapter are as follow s: W . G. Maddox, cousin; Samuel Grant, cousin; John M. Grant, cousin; Gurdon Black, cousin by marriage. The Goodwins. From Dr. John Reeves Goodwin, De Pauw ’45, a charter member of old Indiana Asbury Chapter, began a Beta line which includes Charles Francis Goodwin, De Pauw ’j i ; John S. Goodwin, De Pauw ’77; William Ransdell Goodwin, De Pauw ’83; Robert S. John, De Pauw ’97, a cousin; John Pemberton Goodwin, De Pauw ’01; Lieutenant Thomas Arthur Goodwin, Chicago ’16; Mortimer Goodwin, Chicago ’23, Iowa State ’23; and William Robert Johnston, Cornell ’04, who married a daughter of John S. Goodwin. For nearly twenty years the Chicago alumni held their annual June outing at Heatherton near Naperville, Illinois, the country home of John S. Goodwin. The Gordons. A Gordon clan of about a dozen members is associated with the Wesleyan and Yale chapters. The Birds. Members of the Bird family in the Maine and Bowdoin chapters are related as follows, beginning with the youngest member: Rich ard P. Bird, Maine ’31, has the following relatives in Beta Theta P i: John Bird, Maine ’90, grandfather; Alan L. Bird, Maine ’00, great-uncle; Ralph E. Bird, Maine ’05, second cousin; Sidney M. Bird, Maine ’07, father; Maurice C. Bird, Maine ’13, third cousin; Walter J. Bird, Maine ’ 14, second cousin; Adriel U. Bird, Bowdoin ’ 16, uncle; Sidney M. Bird, Bowdoin ’29, cousin. The Thompsons. Charles Telford Thompson, Denison ’73 had as chap ter contemporaries three first cousins, Harry Lardner Keys, Denison ’73; William Barr Keys, Denison ’74; and Benjamin Keys, Denison ’74. His younger brother, George Keys Thompson, was at Denison a short time be fore going to an eastern college, but was not a Beta. Three sons of William B. Keys joined the Miami chapter: William Harkness Keys, Miami ’98; Pierson Douglas Keys, Miami ’99; and Richard Thompson Keys, Miami ’03. Two sons of Charles T. Thompson joined the Minnesota chapter, Arthur Harris Thompson, Minnesota ’05; and Telford King Thompson, Minnesota ’08. Three sons of George K. Thompson wear the badge, Stuart McMillan Thompson, Minnesota ’06; Samuel Joseph Thompson, Minnesota ’08; and Lawrence Thompson, Purdue ’ 12.

442

BETA LORE

The M cKees. “ M cKee is a family name in the Centre chapter,” some one wrote me. Through correspondence I have learned that James Lapsley McKee, 49> was a brother of Samuel McKee, ’ 53- Their first cousins were James Finley McKee, ’49, and Robert McKee, Transylvania ’45, and they had a first cousin, Hugh W are McKee, ’63. Tw o other Epsilon members carry the respected M cKee name, Melville McKee Vaughan, ’78, and George M cKee Batterton, ’04. The M cKee family came from Garrard county, and Captain William Buford, a familiar name in that section, was a pioneer. Later a member of his family, William Buford, was to become a Beta at the Naval Academy. Another settler was John Lapsley and that name is in cluded in the M cKee list, evidently being carried over from an intermarriage. The first member of the family was William McKee, whose son, Samuel Mc Kee, was a member of Congress from 1809-17. His son, William R. Mc Kee, was killed in the Battle of Buena Vista during the Mexican War. By a coincidence, his own son, Hugh Wilson McKee, Naval Academy ’63, was to die in 1871 while storming the Citadel, “ Fort M cKee,” Kang Hoa Island, Corea, while leading an attacking party of the United States Marines against the Coreans. The name Finley may have come into' the M cKee family on account of the Reverend Samuel Finley, who conducted a classical school at Lancaster as early as 1806.— Karl W . Fischer. The Gunnisons. W alter Balfour Gunnison, St. Lawrence ’75, a charter member of Beta Zeta chapter, and Herbert Foster Gunnison, St. Lawrence ’80, were brothers. Each had two sons who became Betas, the former, Stanley Eaton Gunnison, ’99, and Almon Gage Gunnison, ’01, the latter. Raymond M ay Gunnison, ’09, and Foster Gunnison, ’ 18. The third gener ation is represented by Stanley Gunnison’s son, Hugh Gunnison, ’26. All are members of the St. Lawrence chapter. W alter Gunnison married Blanche Eaton. Her sister married William Leonard Caten, ’83, whose sons, Walter, ’ 12, and William Leonard, Jr., ’16, carried on the link. Walter married his first cousin, Portia, the youngest daughter of Walter B. Gunni son. Almon Gage Gunnison, son of W alter B., married Alice Poste, daughter of William A. Poste, ’ 7 1 , who had a son, Ellsworth, a member in the class of ’01. A nephew of William Poste, Joseph Ellsworth, ’28, contin ued the line. Foster Gunnison, the son of Herbert F. and nephew of Walter B., married Miss Caroline Me Allaster whose sister, Adelaide, married W il liam Leonard Caten, Jr. Joseph McAllaster, a brother of these two sisters was of the class of ’20. Joseph married Miss Virginia Sprague who has a brother in the Syracuse chapter. The Church-Atwood-Manleys. In the St. Lawrence chapter Augustus Byington Church, ’86, married Miss Anne Atwood. Their two sons, John Atwood and Harold Augustus, were of the classes of ’ 17 and ’22, respec tively. Mrs. Church’s brother, John Murray Atwood, ’89, was followed by his son, John Murray, Jr., ’23. Mary, a sister of Mrs. Church and Dr. Atwood, married Williston Manley, ’88, followed by a son, Gilbert Atwood Manley, ’16. The two Manleys each served the fraternity as chief of the same district in his time. Tw o cousins, Fletcher D. Dodge, ’06, and James H arry Spencer, ’ 12, of Williston Manley are of the chapter. The eldest daughter of Dr. Atwood, Miss Ruth, married Malcolm S. Black, ’ 16, who has a brother, Carlyle Helmle Black, ’08, and a brother-in-law, Cleland R. Austin, ’05, both members. The Black boys came in the footsteps of

BETA CLANS

443

their uncle, George B. Helmle, ’85. A cousin of the Black boys, William C. Needham, entered the chapter in the fall of 1927. John Atwood, the son of A. B. Church, married Miss Katherine Spears whose brother-in-law, Max Jameson, ’08, joined the chapter. The Hatfield-Hobarts: In the Northwestern chapter James T aft Hat field, ’83, and Henry Rand Hatfield, ’92, are brothers, the former having a Beta son, Theodore Merryman Hatfield, ’20. Their sister Emily married William Thomas Hobart, ’79, who had two Beta sons, Chauncey Goodrich Hobart, ’09, and Marcus Hatfield Hobart, ’ 12. The Rich Clan. Arthur Draper Rich, Michigan ’51, had five Beta sons, Albert Dyckman Rich, ’91; Frank Dyckman Rich, ’83; Ben Cornelius Rich, ’96; William Barret Rich, ’97, all of the Michigan chapter, and Louis Rich, Northwestern ’87. Ben C. Rich had two Beta sons in the Illinois chapter, Francis Marion Rich, ’25, and Albert Dyckman Rich, ’26. A son of Arthur D. Rich, ’51, Evert Rich, not a Beta, had two sons in the Illinois chapter, Paul Cobb Rich, ’ 14, and Donald Bert Rich, ’ 15. Another grand son is John Kellogg Rich, Beloit ’ 15. The Eastmans. There are six Eastman brothers in the Amherst chapter, George Pomeroy Eastman, ’84; Lucius Root Eastman, ’95; Alexander Crane Eastman, ’96; Rufus Porter Eastman, ’99; Henry Keyes Eastman, ’01; and John Eastman, ’02. Two sons of George P. Eastman also are Amherst Betas, Gardner Pettee Eastman, ’ 15; and Philip Yale Eastman, ’ ig. A son of Rufus P. Eastman is Forest Porter Eastman, Wesleyan ’26. Mrs. John Eastman’s brother is Curtis . Sohl, Ohio State ’08.

•...MANLEY 'D IS T R IC T C H IE F S. W illiston ’88 and son Atwood ’ 16 of St. Lawrence chapter.

BETA LORE

444

K IN S H IP IN T H E F R A T E R N IT Y

Kinship began to play a part in Beta Theta Pi with the initiation of the first member after the immortal eight, Henry Hunter Johnson, Miami ’40, No. 9 on Alpha’s roll, being a Beta cousin. He was the one in mind when the “ mystic nine” was being considered at the beginning. He was initiated on November 14, 1839. Within fifteen years family ties had begun to make quite a showing. Making a study of the first catalogue of the fraternity, that of 1855, Karl W . Fischer, Indiana ’25, found more than thirty sets of brothers in Beta Theta Pi. Using present-day names for “ Asbury” and “ Jefferson,” and arranging chapter names alphabetically sets of brothers a re : C entre C

Breckinridge Blackburn, ’53 James W . Blackburn, ’54 John Preston Coleman, ’53 Robert Firm in Coleman, ’54 John Marshall Harlan, ’50 James Harlan, ’50

hapter

John Lapsley M cKee, ’49 Samuel McKee, ’53 Robert McKee, ’45 (Transylvania chapter) # James Finley M cKee, ’49 C um berland C

James F. Caldwell, ’55 .Samuel Houston Caldwell, ’55

hapter

Arthur W . Robinson, ’56 Matthew McClung Robinson, ’57

C A L D W E L L B R O T H E R S FROM CU M B E R LA N D

KINSHIP IN THE FRATERNITY

William Mitchell Daily, ’51 David Oliver Daily, ’53 W illiam Holman DeMotte, ’49 Mark Lindsey DeMotte, ’53 William McKendree Hester, ’48 Andrew Briggs Hester, 54 Melville Craven Hester, ’55 Isaac Reynolds Hitt, ’49 W illis Martin Hitt, ’51 John Hitt, ’53 Robert R'oberts Hitt, ’55 H

445

D e P au w C h apter T n tj j > JonaS Howf d- 49 John Howard> ’57 W illiam Green Millsaps, ’53 Reuben W ebster Millsaps, ’54 Thomas Henry Sinex, ’42 W illiam George Sinex, ’44 Robert Middleton W eir, ’51 Trevanian Teel W eir, ’55

a m p d e n - S id n e y

C h apter George Washington Jones, ’54

Thomas Thw eatt Jones, ’55 H

anover

Henry Spencer Scovel, ’53

C h apter Sylvester Fithian Scovel, ’54

I n d ia n a C h a p t e r Samuel Newell Depew Martin, ’46 W illiam Alexander Parsons Martin, ’46 M

ia m i

Thomas Artemas Fullerton, ’53 Joseph Scott Fullerton, ’56 N

orth

Junius Irving Scales, ’53 Nathaniel Eldridge Scales, ’53 O

C h apter Henry Clay Noble, ’45 John W illock Noble, ’50

C a r o l in a C h a p t e r H enry Humpreys Tate, ’58 John Webster Tate, ’58 h io

Jefferson Prince Safford, ’43

C h apter James Merrill Safford, ’44

W a s h in g t o n -J e ffe r so n C h a p t e r George Washington Clark, ’48 Charles Martin, ’4 2 ’ John H enry Clark, ’52 Henry Stanley Martin, ’51 (B .) Rush Clark, ’53 David M cKinney, ’49 TT , Abraham Smith McKinney, ’55 William M ay Houston, 43 John Patterson Houston, ’56 Joh? Prentis Penny, ’42 ’ Levi Penny, 50 Jonathan Letterman, 45 Robert Fleming Wilson, ’50 Craig Ritchie Letterman, ’45 Miles Cooper W ilson, ’55 W estern R Sanford Rockwell Bissell, ’43 Lemuel Bissell, ’45 Albert Fitch, 52 David Fitch, ’55

C h apter Halbert Eleazer Paine, ’45 George Paine, ’49 James H. Paine, ’54 Rufus Sawyer, ’49 Rollin Augustus Sawyer, ’51

eserve

There was also a case of father and son. It was a bit irregular. In the catalogue is included George Edmond Peirce, Yale ’ 16, president of Western Reserve from 1834 to 1855, who became a member of Western Reserve chap ter and presided at the convention of 1848, the third triennial, held at Hud son, Ohio. Three of his sons became members of the chapter, the oldest, listed in the first catalogue, being Charles Rockwell Peirce, ’44.

446

BETA LORE

Since 1855 the ties of kinship have multiplied in Beta Theta Pi, until, in August, 1928, probably one sixth of the entire membership from 1839 is made up of those who are related in blood as well as in the bond. As a rule the chapters which have been accustomed to take family members are strong, deeply rooted and energetic, while those which have found fault with “ legacies” and have passed by Beta sons and brothers as “ not our type” are lacking in sentiment and in the power which comes from “ the gen erations.” Merle Crowe Coulter, Chicago, ’ 14/was the first great-grandson to be initiated, his ancestor, John Finley Crowe of Hanover being initiated early in the history of Iota chapter as a factor in securing recognition by the college authorities. There are a good many instances of grandfather-grandson relationships, where the intermediate link, the father or the mother, is not part of the chain. The three-generation groups increase in number as the years go by. The cases of “ two brothers” are not listed. Even with incomplete reports the indications are that there are in Beta Theta Pi, as of August, 1928, between 2,500 and 3,000 such pairs of members. The tables which follow are incomplete. They are published as a help toward a fuller record later. Some of the chapters failed to co-operate. Some of the correspondents reported no one available who knew the chapter relationship. In the case of each chapter two letters were sent to the chapter presiderft, earnestly seeking assistance.

G R A N D FA TH ER-G RA N D SO N John W. Herron, Miami ’45, was chairman of the Board of Direc tors of Beta Theta Pi from 1879 to 1893. His grandson is Charles P. Taft, II, Yale ’18.

THREE GENERATIONS

447

THREE GENERATIONS IN BETA TH ETA PI Davies Batterton, Indiana ’47 Frank Batterton, Indiana ’79 H arry Rawles Batterton, Indiana ’03

Andrew Hopewell Hepburn, Indiana ’22 W illiam McGuffey Hepburn, Indiana ’21 Charles Keith Hepburn, Indiana ’29

John Bird, Maine ’90 Maurice Cobb Bird, Maine ’13 Richard P. Bird, Maine ’31

Elijah Justin Hills, Michigan ’61 Elijah Clarence Hills, Cornell ’92 Elijah Justin Hills, Colorado College ’21; Indiana ’21 George Strough Hills, Indiana ’22 Clarence Ballard Hills, Indiana ’23

Edward Bruce Chandler, Michigan ’58 George Mosley Chandler, Michigan ’98 Bruce Cooley Chandler, Michigan ’24 Charles H enry Collier, Ohio ’63 William Parker Collier, Ohio ’95 Joseph Fleming Collier, Ohio ’27

Isaac W ilson Joyce, De Pauw ’72 Frank Melville Joyce, D e Pauw ’82 Arthur Reamy Joyce, Minnesota ’05 W ilbur Birch Joyce, Minnesota ’08

Thomas Theodore Crittenden, Centre ’55 Thomas Theodore Crittenden, Jr., M is souri ’82 Rogers Crittenden, Missouri ’ 19

John W esley Lindsay, Wesleyan ’40 William Birckhead Lindsay, Boston ’79 Lennox Hubbard Lindsay, Boston ’99

John Calvin Eastman, Hanover ’65 Roy Schenck Eastman, Hanover ’97 McDowell Venable Eastman, California

’25

Oakey V an Hise Parrish, Ohio Wesleyan ’67 Charles Jared Parrish, Ohio Wesleyan ’g2 Lee Nowlin Parrish, Miami ’03

Samuel Trumbel Gillett, Indiana ’35 Omer Tousley Gillett, Indiana ’66 Omer Rand Gillett, Colorado College ’98

Arthur Draper Rich, Michigan ’51 Ben Cornelius Rich, Michigan ’96 Francis Marion Rich, Illinois ’25 Albert Dykeman Rich, Illinois ’26

John Reeves Goodwin, De Pauw ’45 W illiam Ransdell Goodwin, De Pauw ’83 Mortimer Goodwin, Chicago ’22; Iowa State ’22

Theodore Frelinghuysen Rose, Indiana ’75 Frederick Dodds Rose, Indiana ’04 Theodore Frelinghuysen Rose, Kenyon ’29 Andrew W alcott Rose, Kenyon ’30

Andrew Dousa Hepburn, WashingtonJefferson ’51 Charles M cGuffey Hepburn, Virginia ’8o

Timothy Eleazer Steele, Wesleyan ’63 Edward Lee Steele, Wesleyan ’94 Richard Timothy Steele, Wesleyan ’21

T W O O F T H E T H R E E R O S E G E N E R A T IO N S Frederick D. Rose, Indiana ’04, son of Theodore F. Rose, Indiana 75. with his sons Theodore and Andrew of the Kenyon chapter.

448

BETA LORE

Somewhat irregular cases include two where a son-in-law is counted and one where a step-father appears. Henry Judson Booth, Denison ’73 Charles Duncanson Young, Cornell ’02 John Randolph Young, Cornell ’27 James Cooper Evans, Ohio Wesleyan ’53 Edward Lincoln Shannon, Ohio Wesleyan

’9°

James Reid Shannon, Colorado ’30

Henry W hite Warren, Wesleyan ’53 William Seward Iliff, Denver ’88 John W esley Iliff, Denver ’20 W illiam Seward Iliff, Jr., Denver ’21 W alter Balfour Gunnison, St. Lawrence ’75 Stanley Eaton Gunnison, St. Lawrence ’99 Hugh Gunnison, St. Lawrence ’26

GRANDFATHER-GRANDSON IN BETA THETA PI The instances which have been reported include: John Alexander Annin, Princeton ’46 John W ilkins Annin, Washington ’23

William McKendree Hester, D e Pauw ’48 W illiam Frederick Hester, De Pauw ’25

W illiam H arris Bell, Texas ’68 W illiam H arris Bell, Jr., Texas ’22 Marshall Odon Bell, Texas ’23

Philetus Theodore Pockman, Rutgers ’75 Abijah Upsilon Fox, Rutgers ’26

James Henry W atkins Blake, Dickinson

’75

Stephen Duncan Bradley, Jr., Cornell ’28 Daniel Blain, Washington-Lee ’58 Daniel Blain, Washington-Lee ’20 George Churchill, K n ox ’61 Lake George Churchill, K n o x ’21 John Stevenson Frierson, Centre ’53 George W em berly Killebrew, Vanderbilt ’ 16 John Frierson Killebrew, Vanderbilt ’23 Joseph Buckner Killebrew, Vanderbilt ’25 James H arvey Gardner, Ohio ’59 Paul Royce, Pennsylvania State ’21

H enry Moses Pollard, Dartmouth ’57 Richard Pollard Hafner, Washington ’22 Burton Pollard Scholz, Washington ’25 John Hindman Sherrard, Jefferson ’57 James Houston Ewing, Jefferson ’30

WashingtonWashing ton-

Timothy Eleazer Steele, Wesleyan ’63 Kenneth Eaton Steele, Wesleyan ’26 Edward Bruce Stevens, Miami ’43 Edward Stevens Robinson, Cincinnati ’ 16 Matthew W alton Venable, Virginia ’65 Robert Vance Venable, West Virginia ’26 (W . W . Vance, the father is a Phi Sigma Kappa)

FATHER AND FIVE SONS IN BETA THETA PI Arthur Draper Rich, Michigan ’51 Louis Rich, Northwestern ’87 A lbert Dyckman Rich, Michigan ’91

Frank Dyckman Rich, Michigan ’93 Ben Cornelius Rich, Michigan ’96 William Barrett Rich, Michigan ’97

FATHER AND FOUR SONS IN BETA THETA PI John Brindley, Wisconsin ’74 W illis Edge Brindley, Wisconsin ’03 Thaddeus H ayw ard Brindley, W isconsin’06 Benjamin Reed Brindley, Wisconsin ’14 John W ebster Brindley, Wisconsin ’21

William Joseph Roddey, Virginia ’83 William Joseph Roddey, Jr., Davidson ’ 14 Benjamin Dunlap Roddey, Davidson ’17 W illiam Lyle Roddey, Davidson ’22 John Roddey, Dazndson ’23

John Harper Long, Kansas ’77 Albert Stoneman Long, Chicago ’09 Esmond Ray Long, Chicago ’ 11 Lothar Reymond Long, Northzvestern ’ 14 Byron Southland Long, Northwestern ’ 18; Dartmouth ’ 18

W illiam Robert Todd, Cincinnati ’91 Samuel Pogue Todd, Cincinnati ’20 William Robert Todd, Jr., Cincinnati ’24 Francis W est Todd, Cincinnati ’24 Richard W arren Todd, Cincinnati ’26

FATHER AND FOUR SONS

TH E W ELD

F A M IL Y

449

45 °

BETA LORE

T H E W IS C O N S IN B R IN D L E Y F A M IL Y This picture, taken in 1922, shows John Brindley, Wisconsin ’74, who died February 11, 1926, Mrs. Brindley, and their four Wisconsin Beta sons, W illis ’30, Thaddeus, ’06, Benjamin, ’14 and John, ’21. Herbert W hitmore Weld, Cincinnati ’89 Rogers Bagley W eld, Northwestern ’23 W allace W hitm ore W eld, Northwestern ’24 Stanley Addison W eld, Northwestern ’29 Herbert Hamilton W eld, Northwestern

Charles David Williams, Kenyon ’80 Charles David Williams, Jr., Kenyon ’i{ Robert Dickson Williams, Kenyon ’23 Benedict Williams, Kenyon ’27 Ernest Brainerd Williams, Kenyon ’31

’30

FATHER AND THREE SONS IN BETA THETA PI Allen Jones Barbee, Vanderbilt ’87 Frank Harbert Barbee, Vanderbilt ’ 19 John M urrey Barbee, Vanderbilt ’21 Allen Jones Barbee, Jr., Vanderbilt ’21 James Addams Beaver, WashingtonJefferson ’56 Gilbert Addams Beaver, Pennsylvania State ’go Hugh M cAllister Beaver, Pennsylvania State ’95 Thom as Beaver, Pennsylvania State ’98 James Stanley Brown, Denison ’89 Castle M arlatt Brown, Denison ’ 14 V ergil Neal Brown, Denison ’ 16 Grant Houston Brown, Northwestern ’21 Thomas Theodore Crittenden, Centre ’55 Henry Huston Crittenden, Missouri ’81 Thomas Theodore Crittenden, Missouri ’82 W illiam Jackson Crittenden, Missouri ’85

Frank Coffroth Dailey, Indiana ’94; DePauw ’94 Field Tribolet Dailey, Indiana ’16 Joseph Leonard Dailey, huliana ’ 17 George Simmons Dailey, Indiana ’25 Herbert Charles Elmer, Cornell ’83 Basil Beebe Elmer, Cornell ’ 13 Charles Wellington Elmer, Cornell ’19 Clarence Jefferson Elmer, Cornell ’28 James Leon de Fremery, California ’82 James de Fremery, California ’12 Leon de Fremery, California ’ 12 Paul W illiam de Fremery, California ’ 19 John Mosby Grant, Westminster ’86 Samuel Becker Grant, Washington ’ 18 John Moore Grant, Washington ’22 Edward W arren Grant, Washington ’25

FATH ER AND THREE SONS Charles Andrew William Charles

M cGuffey Hepburn, Virginia ’80 Hopewell Hepburn, Indiana ’21 M cGuffey Hepburn, Indiana ’22 Keith Hepburn, Indiana ’29

Elijah Clarence Hills, Cornell '92 Elijah Justin Hills, Colorado College ’21; Indiana ’21 George Strough Hills, Indiana ’22 Clarence Ballard Hills, Indiana ’23 Thomas Jefferson Keating, Denison ’73 David Thatcher Keating, Ohio State ’99 H arvey Thatcher Keating, Ohio State ’02 Edwin Russell Keating, Ohio State ’06 Jesse A. Miller, Iowa ’91 Frederic Magoon Miller, Iowa ’22 Alexander McColm Miller, Iowa ’25 Jesse Earle Miller, Iowa ’28 George Edmond Pierce, Western Reserve (Y ale 1816) Charles Rockwell Pierce, Western R e serve ’44 John Pierce, Western Reserve ’50 W illiam Henry Pierce, Western Reserve

’58 Gordon Aiken Ramsay, Northwestern ’96 Gordon Aiken Ramsay, Jr., Northwestern ’27

45i

Robert Scott Ramsay, Northwestern ’28 Kenneth Symonds Ramsay, Northwestern ’29 Charles Henry Sharer, Northwestern ’83 Charles W entworth Sharer, Northwestern David M ax Sharer, Northwestern ’ 14 Samuel Dwight Sharer, Northwestern ’22 Vinton Randall Shepard, Denison ’76 Levi Lee Shepard, Denison ’05 W illiam Hughes Shepard, Denison ’07 W ade Phillips Shepard, Denison ’ 14 Horace Clayton Horace Emmett

Jefferson Smith, K n ox ’95 Needham Smith, Kansas State ’21 Russell Smith, K n o x ’24 Mitchell Smith, K n ox ’31

Edwin Holland Terrell, De Pauw ’71 M averick Terrell, D ePauw ’96 George Holland Terrell, De Pauw ’00, Texas ’00 Lewis Terrell, D e Pauw ’04; Purdue ’04 Edward Payson Whallon, Hanover ’68 W alter Lowrie Whallon, Hanover ’99 Albert Kitchell Whallon, Hanover ’05 Arthur James Whallon, Hanover ’07

B E T A B R O T H E R S IN T H E B O N D In 1873 H enry J. Booth, Denison ’73 and Thomas J. Keating, D eni son ’73 had a picture taken together (le ft). In 1915, after forty-two years, they had another taken with the same pose as in 1873. In the intervening years they had been law partners in Columbus, Ohio. Booth who is on the right in the pictures has two sons in the Ohio State chapter, a son-in-law and a grandson in the Cornell chapter. K eating’s three sons are on the Ohio State chapter roll.

BETA LORE

45 2

F A T H E R A N D T W O S O N S IN B E T A T H E T A PI V asco Pickett Abbott, St. Lawrence ’67 W orth Pickett Abbott, St. Lawrence ’00 Hugh Abbott, St. Lawrence ’03

George Anderson Cooke, K nox ’92 George Blee Cooke, K n ox ’26 Thomas Blee Cooke, K nox ’20

Washington Irving Babb, Iowa Wesleyan

Seymour Shepard Cooke, Wisconsin ’88 George Seymour Cooke, Minnesota ’21 Frederick Stearns Cooke, Minnesota ’22

’66 M ax W ellington Babb, Iowa Wesleyan

’95

Miles Thornton Babb, Iowa Wesleyan ’98 Fred Dale Barker, Denison ’82 Marshall Luther Barker, Denison ’19 Vernon Judson Barker, Denison ’24 W illiam W irt Beck, Indiana ’74 Broussais Coman Beck, University of Washington ’ 10 John Dillard Beck, University of Wash ington ’ 14 Elmer W ilkinson Bender, Am herst ’94 Nathaniel Brown Bender, University of Washington ’23 Edwin Brown Bender, University of Washington ’25 James Henry W atkins Blake, Dickinson

’75

W illiam Stockton Cranmer, Rutgers ’82 Stockton Cranmer, Rutgers ’08 Clarkson Atwood Cranmer, Rutgers ’16 Dean D. Deeds, Denison ’99 Dean Dalton Deeds, Denison ’26 Charles Douglas Deeds, Denison ’30 Carl G regg Doney, Ohio State ’93 Hugh Abram Doney, Wesleyan ’23 Paul Herbert Doney, Wesleyan ’24 George Pomeroy Eastman, Amherst ’84 Gardner Pettee Eastman, Amherst ’ 15 Philip Y ale Eastman, Amherst ’19 Jay Glover Eldridge, Idaho ’96 Robert W alker Eldridge, Idaho ’23 Francis Glover Eldridge, Idaho ’27

James Vinton Blake, Kenyon ’00 Charles Glenville Blake, Cornell ’ 10

Robert W ilson Fullerton, Cornell ’04 Robert Fullerton, Iowa ’07 Donald Parsons Fullerton, Iowa ’14

Henry Judson Booth, Denison ’73 George Hamilton Booth, Ohio State '03 Herbert Barton Booth, Ohio State ’ 12

Charles Emerson Gregory, Union ’94 Robert Douglas Gregory, Union ’21 Charles Emerson Gregory, Jr., Union ’28

H oward Voorhees Buttler, Rutgers ’75 George Harold Buttler, Rutgers ’02 Irving Ditmars Buttler, Rutgers ’ r8

Odon Guitar, Jr., Missouri ’95 W allace Estill Guitar* Missouri ’15 Odon Guitar, III, Missouri ’29

Joseph Porter Campbell, Ohio State ’96 Colin Crum Campbell, Ohio State ’24 Joseph W illiam Campbell, Ohio State ’29

W alter B alfour Gunnison, St. Lawrence

’75

Stanley Eaton Gunnison, St. Lawrence ’99 Almon Gage Gunnison, St. Lawrence ’01

Thomas Carmody, Cornell ’82 George Edward Carmody, Dartmouth ’22 Earle Joseph Carmody, Dartmouth ’24

Herbert Foster Gunnison, St. Lawrence ’80 Raymond M ay Gunnison, St. Lawrence

W illiam Spencer Cassedy, Union ’90 Edward Spencer Cassedy, Union ’19 Raymond Frank Cassedy, Union ’22

Foster Gunnison, St. Lawrence ’ 18

W illiam Leonard Caten, St. Lawrence ’83 W alter Eaton Caten, St. Lazvrence ’12 W illiam Leonard Caten, Jr., St. Lawrence ’ 16 W ayland M organ Chester, Colgate ’94 Henry W ilbur Chester, Colgate ’23 M organ Elliott Chester, Colgate ’25

°9

W illiam Herman Hall, Union ’96 H arry Hepburn Hall, Union ’26 H arvey Porter Hall, Union ’30 John Ernest Halliday, Ohio Wesleyan ’91 Tom Dunbar Halliday, Ohio Wesleyan ’ 19 John Ernest Halliday, Jr., Ohio Wesleyan

’29

Augustus Byington Church, St. Lawrence

Leslie Lewis Hardison, Texas ’93 Frederick Leslie Hardison, Texas ’25 George Porter Hardison, Texas ’26

’86 John Atwood Church, St. Lawrence ’17 Harold Augustus Church, St. Lawrence ’22

H arry Newton Hill, Kenyon ’87 Dana Emmons Hill, Kenyon ’ 17 V ictor Hill, Brown '2.7

FATH ER AND TW O SONS William

Thomas

Hobart,

Northwestern

’79

Chauncey Goodrich Hobart, Northwestern ’09 Marcus Hatfield Hobart, Northzve stern ’12 W ilby Grimes Hyde, Ohio State ’87 Howard Linton Hyde, Ohio State '22 Donald Frizell Hyde, Ohio State ’29 William Seward Iliff, Denver ’88 John W esley Iliff, Denver '20 W illiam Seward Iliff, Jr., Denver ’21 William Thomas Jones, Missouri ’96 Mostyn Jones, Westminster ’28 Augustin Jones, Washington ’29 W illiam Campbell Jacob, WashingtonJefferson ’83 W illiam Pauli Jacob, Washington-J eff erson ’17 James Archibald Jacob, WashingtonJefferson ’22

453

W illiam Thomas Magruder, Stevens ’81 W illiam Thomas Magruder, Jr., Ohio State ’ 15 Thomas Malone Magruder, Ohio State ’20 Charles Meeks Mason, Rutgers ’97 Charles Bloomfield Mason, Rutgers ’27 W illiam Pepperell Mason, Rutgers ’29 Allison W . M axwell, Indiana ’69 Leslie Howe M axwell, Indiana ’06 Alan Burroughs M axwell, Indiana ’16 Lee Montgomery, Westminster ’91 John Zimmerman Montgomery, Missouri ’21 Lee Sneed Montgomery, Missouri ’26 David Hastings Moore, Ohio ’60 W illiam Augustus Moore, Denver ’85 Julian Hawkes Moore, Denver ’04 Louis Edward Murrell, Virginia ’93 George Michael Murrell, Tulane ’22 Richard Conner Murrell, Tulane ’24

Frank M elville Joyce, DePauw ’82 Arthur Reamy Joyce, Minnesota ’05 W ilbur Birch Joyce, Minnesota ’08

Everett W ard Olmstead, K n o x ’91; Cor nell ’91 W ard Hubbell Olmstead, Minnesota ’18 Richard Hubbell Olmstead, Minnesota ’22

Edward Havener Kelley, Maine ’90 Irving Barstow Kelley, Maine ’26 Edward Gilman Kelley, Maine ’29

Edward Everett Palmer, Maine ’99 Edward Everett Palmer, Jr., Maine ’30 John Marsh Palmer, Maine ’30

James E dgar Kinnison, Ohio ’80 Charles Shadrach Kinnison, Ohio State ’11 James E dgar Kinnison, Jr., Ohio ’16

Franklin Leonard Parker, Michigan ’47 Edwin Reuben Parker, Michigan ’96 John Marshall Parker, Michigan ’98

John W augh Laney, Iozva Wesleyan ’85 W illiam Bryan Laney, Washington State ’21 David Herrin Laney, University o f Wash ington ’21

Richard Cunningham Patterson, Dickin son ’80 Richard Cunningham Patterson, Nebraska ’ 10; Columbia ’11 John E ra Patterson, Columbia ’13; V ir ginia ’ 12

Charles Edward Lauder, Michigan ’01 Charles Edward Lauder, Jr., K n ox ’24; Iowa ’24 Frederick H. Lauder Andrew W alker M cAlester, M issouri ’64 Andrew W alker McAlester, Jr., Missouri ’01 B erry M cAlester, M issouri ’01 Emlin McClain, Iowa ’71 Donald McClain, Iowa ’01 Henry Griffith McClain, Iowa ’03 John Gilbert McDougal, Ohio State ’80 Taine Gilbert McDougal, Ohio State ’ 11 Charles Bastian McDougal, Ohio State ’ 14 Robert Love McLaurin, Mississippi ’86 John Gans McLaurin, Tulane ’ 14 Hugh Love McLaurin, Tulane ’ 19 William Adam Magee, California ’87 W illiam Adam Magee, Jr., California ’18 H arry Hush Magee, California ’21

Adam Carl Patton, Indiana ’84 John Adam Patton, Colorado ’15 Edwin Fritz Patton, Colorado ’ 18 James Lea Pauli, ’69 John Jacob Pauli,

Washington-Jefferson Washington-J eff erson

James Pauli, Jr., Washington-J eff erson ’23 A lfred W illiam Place, Bethany ’98 Graham Place, Ohio State ’26 Robert Place, Jr., Chicago ’29 Ernest W illiam Ponzer, Illinois ’00 Ernest D eW itt Ponzer, Illinois ’27 Howard Smith Ponzer, Illinois ’29 Charles Smith Powell, Vanderbilt ’83; Michigan ’84 Charles Smith Powell, Jr., Case ’14; Stan ford ’ 14 John Edmond Powell, Michigan ’18

BETA LORE

454

Cornelius W iltbank Prettyman, Dickinson

’72

Cornelius W illiam Prettyman, Dickinson

’91

V irg il Prettyman, Dickinson ’92 Frederick W illiam Proudfoot, Boston ’89 Alexander W illiam Proudfoot, Chicago ’23 Malcolm Jarvis Proudfoot, Chicago ’29 Francis Bird Quigley, Dickinson ’80 W illiam Baird Quigley, Missouri ’07; Washington ’07 Lew is Andrews Quigley, M issouri ’ 11 W illiam A. Rawles, Indiana ’84 Thomas H oward Rawles, Indiana ’ 19 W illiam Post Rawles, Indiana ’21 Ben Cornelius Rich, Michigan ’96 Francis Marion Rich, Illinois ’25 Albert Dykeman Rich, Illinois ’26 Robert Douglas Roller, Virginia Military

’76

Robert Douglas Roller, Jr., W est Virginia ’00 Benjamin Richardson Roller, W est V ir ginia ’00 Jacob Curtin G regg Roop, Pennsylvania State ’89 Thomas Spenser Roop, St. Lawrence ’ 16 Robert W ay land Roop, St. Lawrence ’26; Pennsylvania State ’26 Frederick Dodds Rose, Indiana ’04 Theodore Frelinghuysen Rose, II, K en yon ’29 Andrew Walcott Rose, Kenyon ’30 Albert Shaw, Johns Hopkins ’84 Roger Shaw, Johns Hopkins ’25 Albert Shaw, Jr., Johns Hopkins ’26 Azariah Proctor Sherwin, St. Lawrence ’83 Proctor Fena Sherwin, St. Lawrence '12 Donald George Sherwin, St. Lawrence ’15 H arwood Edward Smeeth, Williams ’17 Edwin Elliott Smeeth, Williams ’ 17 M errill Rutherford Smeeth, Williams ’24 Ernest Frederick Smith, Iowa Wesleyan ’87

Hulett P. Smith, Minnesota ’22 Dana C. Smith, Minnesota '22 W illiam A lvin Spalding, Monmouth ’76 Harold Bell Spalding, Washington ’04 Herbert A lvin Spalding, Washington State ’20 Lawrence Robinson Stewart, WashingtonJefferson ’03 George Robinson Stewart, WashingtonJefferson ’29 W illiam Grove Stewart, WashingtonJefferson ’29 Henry Paxon Stoddart, Wisconsin ’83 Paxon Calloday Stoddart, Nebraska ’ 15 John Bergman Stoddart, Nebraska ’17 Thomas Elwood Street, Western Reserve ’89 Elwood Vickers Street, Western Reserve ’ 12 Jarvis F rary Street, Western Reserve ’16 David Stanton Tappan, Miami ’65 David Stanton Tappan, Jr., Miami ’03; Washington-Jefferson ’03 Frank Girard Tappan, Washington-Jefferson ’04 Charles T elford Thompson, Denison ’73 Arthur Harris Thompson, Minnesota ’05 T elford K ing Thompson, Minnesota ’08 Alvin Sawyer W heeler, Beloit ’90 W illiam Couch Wheeler, North Carolina ’24 H enry James Wheeler, North Carolina ’26 Barton W arren Wilson, Indiana ’45 W arren Bryan Wilson, Indiana ’75 Davison Wilson, Indiana ’81 Owen Gregg Wilson, Iowa Wesleyan ’89 Owen G regg W ilson, Jr., Chicago ’20 Addison Wilson, Chicago ’25 Owen D. Young, St. Lawrence ’94 John Young, St. Lawrence ’24 Philip Young, St. Lawrence ’31

F A T H E R AN D SON IN BE TA T H E T A PI Robert Robert ’29 Charles Charles

Sidney Abernethy, Davidson ’99 Sidney Abernethy, Jr., Davidson Adamson, Pennsylvania ’80 Adamson, Jr., Pennsylvania ’25

Noble H enry Adsit, St. Lawrence ’86 H arry Brooks Adsit, St. Lawrence ’12 Frank Maloy Anderson, Minnesota ’94 Troyer Steele Anderson, Dartmouth ’94

FATH ER AND SON

455

Henry Ferris Arnold, K n ox ’go Henry Ferris Arnold, K n ox ’23

James Elliott Brandon, Jr., Bethany ’03 James Elliott Brandon, III, Bethany ’28

Louis Ray Arnold, K n ox ’97 Raymond Louis Arnold, K n o x ’29

Charles Snow Brewer, St. Lawrence ’91 Sheldon Marsh Brewer, St. Lawrence ’27

John M urray Atwood, St. Lawrence ’89 John M urray Atwood, Jr., St. Lawrence

Thomas Bertrand Bronson, Michigan ’81 Bertrand H arris Bronson, Michigan ’21

’23 William Melvin Bailey, Maine ’91 W illiam Leonard Bailey, Maine ’26 Joseph Clark Baird, Washington-Jefferson

>85

John Julius Baird, Washington-Jefferson

’30 W illiam Absalom Baird, W ashing ton-J e f ferson ’89 George Baird, Washington-Jefferson ’22 W illiam Raimond Baird, Stevens ’78 Raimond Duy Baird, Wesleyan ’09 John Cuyler Baker, Beloit ’07 Albert Baker, Beloit ’31 H. Sheridan Baketel, Dartmouth ’95 H. Sheridan Baketel, Jr., Dartmouth ’20 Junius Em ery Beal, Michigan ’82 Travis Field Beal, Michigan ’ 17 James Andrew Beall, Texas ’99 Jack Beall, Jr., Texas ’20 W illiam Thornton Beck, Michigan ’98 Thomas Milton Beck, Kansas ’28 Henry W illiam Beeson, Michigan ’57 Harvey Cleveland Beeson, Michigan ’ 10 John Lee Benedict, D e Pauw ’87 Howard Middlecoff Benedict, De Pauzv ’ 14, Purdue ’ 16 Charles H arvey Bentley, California ’92 H arvey W ilder Bentley, California ’22 Sidney Morse Bird, Maine ’07 Richard P. Bird, Maine ’31 William Thomas Black, Denison ’96 W illiam Bogardus Black, West Virginia

’29

Robert Alexander Blackford, WashingtonJefferson ’89 Robert Alexander Blackford, Jr., Washington-Jefferson ’31 Joseph Philip Blanton,

Hampden-Sidney

’69

Henry Bain Blanton, Missouri ’00 A lfred Rufus Bone, Bethany ’94 A lfred R ufus Bone, Jr., Bethany ’28 George Booth, Northwestern ’96 Charles Henry Booth, Northwestern ’26 Emmett Forest Branch, Indiana ’97 Manley Elliott Branch, Purdue ’29

Thomas Steven Brown, Washington-Jef ferson ’77 Oliver W ellington Brown, WashingtonJefferson ’ 16 Benjamin Franklin Bowen, Centre ’88 Joseph W alker Bowen, Cincinnati ’24 J. Elwood Bulen, Ohio State ’03 Horace Maynard Bulen, Washington-J e f ferson ’29 George Clippinger Buntin, Kenyon ’84 Shannon Douglas Buntin, Kenyon ’22 Stephen Jennings Bussell, Maine ’82 Stephen Reginald Bussell, Maine ’20 Rush Clark Butler, Iowa ’93 Rush Clark Butler, Jr., Iowa ’28 T yler Calhoun, Vanderbilt ’88 T yler Calhoun, Jr., Vanderbilt ’24 Robert Lincoln Campbell, W ooster ’91 Robert Lincoln Campbell, Jr., Washing ton-Jefferson ’24 W illiam Henry Campbell, Iowa Wesleyan ’70 W illiam Hastings Campbell, Oklahoma

’i 7 Everett Caldwell, St. Lawrence ’89 Theodore Carter Caldwell, St. Lawrence ’29 Joseph Archibald Cannon, Davidson ’04 Joseph Archibald Cannon, Jr., Davidson

’31 Alexander Mitchell Carroll, Richmond ’88 Randolph Fitzhugh Carroll, Lehigh '22 Clarence Leon Carter, Texas ’91 John W inston Carter, Texas ’ 16 Burleigh Emanuel Cartmell, Ohio W es leyan ’03 E dgar Bearinger Cartmell, Ohio W es leyan ’28 Philip Caswell, Brown ’02 Philip Caswell, Jr., Brown ’28 Julian Paul Cayce, Westminster ’96 D uPuy Forrester Cayce, Westminster ’31 Uriah Milton Chaille, Hanover ’72; D eni son ’72 Lambertson Harold Chaille, Denison ’ 14 Henry Preble Chambers, W ashington-Jef ferson ’81 Joseph Osborn Chambers, WashingtonJefferson ’22; Pennsylvania State ’22

45 6

BETA LORE

Edward Bruce Chandler, Michigan ’58 George Moseley Chandler, Michigan ’98 George M oseley Chandler, Michigan ’98 Bruce Cooley Chandler, Michigan ’24 Stephen Chase, Dartmouth ’96 Stephen Chase, Jr., Dartmouth ’25 W ayland Morgan Chester, Colgate ’94 H arry W ilbur Chester, Colgate ’23 A lexander Bierce Clark, Yale ’97 Alexander Bierce Clark, Jr., Yale ’25

Ira Craw ford, Ohio State ’93 Ira Craw ford, Jr., Denison '26 Thomas Theodore Crittenden, Jr., M is souri ’82 Rogers Crittenden, Missouri ’19 Charles Gutelius Dailey, Indiana ’98 Robert M iller Dailey, Indiana ’26 David Edwin Daniels, Denison ’91 George Richard Daniels, Ohio State ’19 Albert Foster Damon, III, Pennsylvania State ’94 Henry Gilroy Damon, Cornell ’24 Edward Orne Damon, Jr., Amherst ’99 Mason Orne Damon, Amherst ’26 John Jordan Crittenden Davis, Michigan ’82 Winfield Crittenden Davis, Michigan ’17 Edward Andrew Deeds, Denison ’97 Charles W alton Deeds, Denison ’25 W illiam Denney, Iowa Wesleyan ’73 John McCulloch Denney, WashingtonJefferson ’07 John Milton Dodson, Wisconsin ’80 Kasson Monroe Dodson, Chicago ’15 Samuel Gaines Douglas, Vanderbilt ’97 James Geddes Douglas, Vanderbilt ’24 H arry Purcell Dowling, Michigan ’01; Nebraska ’01 Daniel Blair Dowling, California ’28 Palmer Clisby DuBose, Davidson ’02 Clisby Blakeney DuBose, Davidson ’28

A. T. P O P E , Bethany ’62 One of three Beta brothers, he founded the Bethany chapter Charles Henry Clarke, Iowa ’84 Ross Clarke, Iowa ’23 Frederick Clatworthy, Denison ’69 Frederick Payne Clatworthy, Denison ’98 Ewing Cochrell, Virginia ’95 Francis Marion Cochrell, Tulane ’31 Edward Francis Coffin, Wesleyan ’95 Richard Francis Coffin, Wesleyan ’30 John H enry Colby, Dartmouth ’85 John Noyes Colby, Dartmouth ’ 16 George Sheldon Conkey, St. Lawrence ’83 Ogden Fethers Conkey, St. Lawrence ’08

Thomas Jefferson Duncan, Ohio Wesleyan ’69 Robert Phifer Duncan, Ohio State ’08 David Shaw Duncan, Denver ’01 David Robardson Lincoln Duncan, Den ver ’29 James Elmer Durham, De Pauw ’85 Frederic Edward Durham, Indiana ’ 15 Albion M orris Dyer, Colgate ’84 Sidney Dunham Dyer, Johns Hopkins ’12 Guy Chaffee Earl, California ’83 Guy Chaffee Earl, Jr., California ’16 Morris Rogers Ebersole, Cincinnati ’98 Carter Ebersole, California (L .A .) ’29 Prentice Ellis Edrington, Hampden-Sidney ’82 Prentice Ellis Edrington, Jr., Tulane ’ 11

Frederick Linn Cooper, Columbia ’05 Frederick Linn Cooper, Jr., Columbia ’30

Thompson Coit Elliott, Amherst ’85 Thompson Baker Elliott, Amherst ’22; University o f Washington ’22

George Artemas Craw ford, Boston ’78 Howard Tribou Craw ford, Boston ’96

Charles Bates Enlow, Ohio State ’00 Robert Cooke Enlow, Ohio State ’26

FATH ER AND SON

457

Philip Saffery Evans, Jr., Yale ’95 Philip Saffery Evans, III, Yale ’25

John Howard Gates, Iowa ’88 Hobart H are Gates, South Dakota ’29

John Sherrard Ewing, Washington-Jefferson ’05 James Houston Ewing, Washington-Jefferson ’30

W illiam Carl Gayer, Case ’94 Donald Ferguson Gayer, Case ’26

W allace Rider Farrington, Maxine ’91 Joseph Rider Farrington, Wisconsin ’19 Jesse Kelso Farley, Northwestern ’02 Preston Farley, Northwestern ’31 Charles H enrv Feltman, Iowa Wesleyan

Omer Tousey Gillett, Indiana ’66 Omer Rand Gillett, Colorado College ’98 George Nelson Goddard, Am herst ’87 Northam Goddard, Am herst ’22 W illiam Ransdell Goodwin, D e Pauw ’83 Mortimer Goodwin, Chicago ’22; Iowa State ’22

Carl Howard Feltman, Wisconsin ’22

John H enry Grant, Michigan ’82 Paul Emerson Grant, Michigan ’09

Francis Fentress, Cumberland ’95 James Francis Fentress, Washington-Lee ’26

W illiam W alter Grant, Colgate ’98 George Ernest Grant, Colgate ’24

W illiam Owen Ferguson, Bethany ’93 Russell Owen Ferguson, Indiana ’21

Daniel L. Gray, Hanover (Miami ’26) John Hanna Gray, Han over ’56

William Alexander Field, Stevens ’91 William Alexander Field, Jr., Wisconsin ’22

John Green, Hampden-Sidney ’80 Robert Fulton Green, Idaho ’24

Charles Edward Fisher, St. Lawrence ’98 W ebster Evans Fisher, Bowdoin ’28 Michael Montgomery Fisher, Hanover ’55 James Montgomery Fisher, Missouri ’99 Charles Louis Flory, Ohio State ’99 Robert Hewitt Flory, Denison ’31

Edward Chace Greene, Michigan ’04 Edward Chace Greene, Jr., Yale ’28 George Davis Greenwood, Boston ’91 George Monroe Greenwood, California ’21 W ilbur John Greer, Miami ’89 Thomas Greer, Miami ’21 Charles W yckoff Gulick, Rutgers ’95 Floyd Bales Gulick, Rutgers ’31

Roy Horton Flynt, Maine ’04 Horton Flynt, Maine ’30

Stanley Eaton Gunnison, St. Lawrence ’99 Hugh Gunnison, St. Lawrence ’26

Ernest C. Folsom, Nebraska ’98 Arnott Ricketts Folsom, Nebraska ’23 Arthur Benjamin Fosseen, Minnesota '02 Neal Randolph Fosseen, University of Washington ’29

Charles Tilden Hagen, Davidson ’97 James Guy Hagen, North Carolina ’25 Ledyard P ark Hale, St. Lawrence ’76 Horace Charles Hale, St. Lawrence ’09

George A lfred Foster, Northwestern ’81 George H enry Foster, Northwestern ’ 12

Charles Ernest Hall, Kansas ’86 Charles Ernest Hall, Jr., Kansas ’22

W alter Everett Foster, St. Lawrence ’98 Robert Combs Foster, St. Lawrence ’31

Edwin Forrest Hann, Dickinson ’01 Edwin Forrest Hann, Jr., Dickinson ’31

Charles Sumner Fowler, Cornell ’88 Henry Gillette Fowler, Dartmouth ’17

John Calvin Hanna, Wooster ’81 Philip Winchester Hanna, Beloit ’ 14 Charles W illiam Hardt, Pennsylvania State ’97 Anton Hardt, III, Pennsylvania State ’31 John A lfre d Harlow, Bowdoin ’03 Frank B erry Harlow, Bowdoin ’29 Henry Winston Harper, Texas ’81 H enry Winston Harper, Jr., Texas ’18 Lewis Gregory Harrier, California ’80 Lewis Gregory Harrier, California ’20 Robert Hopkins Harrison, Beloit ’02 Robert Howard Harrison, Nebraska ’30 James T a ft Hatfield, North western ’83 Theodore Merryman Hatfield, Northwest ern ’20

Abijah Charles F ox, Rutgers ’94 Abijah Upson Fox, Rutgers ’26 W ellington Pockman Francisco,

Rutgers

’99

W ellington Francisco, Rutgers ’30 William Elijah Fuller, Iowa ’70 Levi Harper Fuller, Iowa ’92 John M clver Furman, Texas ’91 John M clver Furman, Jr., Texas ’22 Homer Gard, Am herst ’88 Charles Campbell Gard, Am herst Wisconsin ’ 17

’ 17;

BETA LORE

458

Horace W alter Hawkins, Michigan ’92 Mortimer H ill Hawkins, Michigan ’31

Alonzo L. Hurd, Maine ’82 Archa Louis Hurd, Wesleyan ’22

Thomas Lyon Hazzard, Washington-Jefferson ’78 Thomas Hamilton Hazzard, WashingtonJefferson ’ 15

George Hunt Hutchinson, Dartmouth ’81 Richard W estervelt Hutchinson, Dart mouth ’19

A rthur Moesta Heilman, Washington-Jef ferson ’00 John Patterson Heilman, W ashington-Jeff erson ’31

Roger W ard Ingham, Pennsylvania ’30

M elville Craven Hester, Indiana ’55 W illiam Lincoln Hester, Indiana ’87 Robert Fardell Hibbitt, Vanderbilt ’88 George W hiting Hibbitt, Ohio State ’ 18 James David Hill, Westminster ’93 Robert A shley Hill, California ’22 Charles Leverett Hills, Western Reserve

’99

Harold George Hills, ’22

Western Reserve

Irvin Oats Hockaday, Missouri ’77 Irvin Oats Hockaday, Jr., Missouri ’02 Frank Phillip H of man, Iowa ’00 Philip Bernhard Hofm an, Pennsylvania

’30

Charles Tattersall Ingham, Pennsylvania

’97

H arry James Inglis, Wesleyan ’02 James Carver Inglis, Wesleyan ’30 Charles Henry Irvin, Bethany ’90 W illiam Phillip Irvin, Yale ’19 W illiam Campbell Jacob, Washington-Jefferson ’83 James Archibald Jacob, Washington-Jeff erson ’22 Burris Atkins Jenkins, Bethany ’91 Paul Andrew Jenkins, Missouri ’21 Leslie Abner Johnson, St. Lawrence ’96 Malcolm Perry Johnson, St. Lawrence ’29 Charles J. Jones, Western Reserve ’84 James Eugene Jones, Western Reserve ’ 14 Clifford Apperson Jones, Cornell ’00 Albert Scarborough Jones, Texas ’28

Ripley Christian Hoffman, Ohio ’43 A rthur Sullivant Hoffman, Ohio State ’97

Frank Cameron Jones, Richmond Texas ’96 Frank Cameron Jones, Jr., Texas ’28

George Steadman Holden, Michigan ’91; Am herst ’90 Roger Cram er Holden, Am herst ’ 19

Herbert Lyon Jones, Denison ’86 Arthur W right Jones, Denison ’20

W illiam Cross Holden, Maine ’92 Francis W right Holden, Wesleyan ’28 David W heeler Holmes, Northwestern ’96 John Blodgett Holmes, Northwestern ’27 Osman Castle Hooper, Denison ’79 Richard Babbitt Hooper, Denison ’11

’93;

John Carleton Jones, Westminster ’79 Lloyd Edmondstone Jones, Missouri ’11 John Evan Jones, Dickinson ’01 John Evan Jones, Jr., Missouri ’27 R oy Meredith Johnston, Missouri ’04 Dick Dunlap Johnston, Nebraska ’29

Otis Ellis Hovey, Dartmouth ’85 Otis W adsworth H ovey, Dartmouth ’15

Thomas Dabney Johnston, Davidson ’96 Frontis W ithers Johnston, Davidson ’30

Frank Trowbridge Hodgdon, Dartmouth ’96 Frank Trowbridge Hodgdon, Darthmouth ’22

Charles M att Karch, St. Lawrence ’96 George Frederick Karch, St. Lawrence ’28

John Hopkins, Dartmouth ’62 Herman Philip Hopkins, Dartmouth ’86 Paul Maurice Hooven, Miami ’00 Paul Maurice Hooven, Jr., Miami '24 Gary de Neuville Hough, Harvard ’81 Gary de Neuville Hough, Wesleyan ’ 18 Stephen Benjamin Hoyt, Wesleyan ’01 Justus Hoyt, Wesleyan ’31 H enry H. Humphrey, Cornell ’86; Ohio

’84

H arry Edward Humphrey, Missouri ’ 15

Benjamin Franklin Kauffman, Amherst ’96 Ray Franklin Kauffman, Iowa ’27 Horace

A gard

Kelley, Lowa

Wesleyan

’7°

Horace Alcinous Kelley, Iowa ’02 W illiam H enry Kendrick, W est Virginia ’°3 . . . . James Garrison Kendrick, W est Virginia ’28 William Potts Kennett, Westminister ’72 Stephen Hempstead Kennett, Washington ’ 06

FATH ER AND SON Raphael Kessler, Pennsylvania State ’92 Raphael Kessler, III, Pennsylvania State ’23 Otto U. King, Indiana ’98 W alter W ellman King, Northwestern ’24 Thomas Bruce King, Denver ’99 Julian Martin King, Nebraska ’27 George Herbert Kinsolving, Virginia ’70 W alter Ovid Kinsolving, Texas ’08 A lfred

Broughton Kissack,

Washington

’°4

459

Norville W ilson Lewis, Western Reserve ’00 Norville M ilford Lewis, Western Reserve ’29 Robert Paine Linfield, Mississippi ’93 Edwin Harper Linfield, Tulane ’20 W alter Lee Lingle, Davidson ’92 W alter Lee Lingle, Jr., Davidson ’28 Alonzo Linn, Washington-Jefferson ’49 Charles Francis Linn, Washington-J effer son ’95

A lfred Southerland Kissack, Washington ’28

Charles Eugene Little, Wesleyan ’96 John Russell Little, Wesleyan ’26

Edward Hooper Kitfield, Dartmouth ’81 Philip Hooper Kitfield, Dartmouth ’20

William Fontaine Little, Rutgers ’03 Frederich H. Little, Rutgers ’30

Ellsworth Brownell Knerr, Wittenberg ’84 Barclay Cal Knerr, Missouri '22

George Robinson Lockwood, Washington

A lfred Henderson Knight, Michigan ’00 A lfred Henderson Knight, Jr., Cornell ’23 William Frederick Kuhn, Wittenberg ’75 Harold Philipp Kuhn, Stanford ’04 Frank M orrill Lay, Amherst ’93 Edward Poole Lay, Am herst ’22 David Layton, Rutgers ’94 Roy Francis Layton, Rutgers ’ 17 John M iller Lawrence, Wittenberg ’78 W illiam Arthur Lawrence, Illinois ’12

’73

Richard John Lockwood, Washington ’04 Bennie Clyde Logsdon, Texas ’94 John Gaffney Logsdon, Oklahoma ’22 Benjamin Franklin Long, Indiana ’01 Benjamin Hanna Long, Indiana ’26 John Hogarth Lozier, D e Pauw ’57 Horace Gillette Lozier, Chicago ’94 Horace Harmon Lurton, Cumberland ’67 Horace Harmon Lurton, Jr., Vanderbilt

’97

T H E L O Z IE R S John H ogarth Lozier, De Pauw ’57 and his son Horace G. Lozier, Chicago ’94

460

BETA LORE

Theron Upson Lyman, Wisconsin ’94 Howard Bertram Lyman, Wisconsin ’24

Henry Newton Miller, Bethany ’98 Edwin Shepherd Miller, Bethany ’25

James Edward Lytle, Cincinnati ’92 James Edward Lytle, Jr., Tulane ’28

H arry Boyd Millikan, Miami ’97 Francis Marion Millikan, Wabash ’28

W illiam Burt MacBride, Centre ’98 W illiam B urt MacBride, Jr., Western R e serve ’15

Harris D eW itt Mills, Davidson ’01 W illiam Courtney Mills, Davidson ’28

Aaron Hardy MacDonald, Richmond ’87 Donald MacDonald, Oregon ’22 Paul Boyd McCracken, K n o x ’97 Dwight Mason McCracken, California (L .A .) ’29 Donald Macrae, Jr., Iowa ’go Donald Macrae, III, Michigan ’ 19; Iowa ’22

Charles

McClellan

Moderwell,

Wooster

’89

Horace McClellan Moderwell, Dartmouth ’26 Thomas Lake Moore, North Carolina ’89 Thomas Lake Moore, Jr., Colorado Col lege ’26 Guy Andrew Moore, Nebraska ’05 Guy Richard Moore, Kansas ’26

W ilburn Monroe M cCoy, Indiana ’84 Frank Thomas McCoy, Indiana ’12

Jeffra Cline Morris, Bethany ’95 W illiam Turner Morris, Bethany ’29

A lfred Clifton McDaniel, Texas ’89 Gibbs McDaniel, Texas ’31

W esley Jones Morrison, Iowa ’93 John Thomas Morrison, Iowa ’30

Frederick Hugh McGahie, Stevens ’92 Donald McGahie, Colgate ’24

Edward W arlock Mumford, Pennsylvania ■ ’89 Philip Sherman Mumford, Pennsylvania ’28

Charles Alexander M cM urry, Michigan ’81 Donald LeCrone M cM urry, Beloit ’ ix Frank Percy M cNeil, Bethany ’73 Allyn Cecil M cNeil, W est Virginia ’09 W illiston Manley, St. Lawrence ’88 Gilbert A tw ood’ Manley, St. Lawrence ’ 16 W ayland Clinton Marlow, Denison ’00 W ayland Clinton M arlow, Jr., Denison

’30 John Marshall, Bethany ’02 John Marshall, Jr., Bethany ’31 John M cCoy Marshall, Mississippi ’83 John W arner Marshall, Washington-Lee ’24 John Edward Martin, Ohio Wesleyan ’01 W illiam M cK elvy Martin, Michigan ’31 (D avid) Howard M axwell, Wabash ’86 W arren H ow ard M axwell, Wabash ’20 Charles Clay Meloy, Washington-Jeffer son ’02 Paul Brownlee Meloy, Washington-Jefferson ’28 W illiam W adell Meloy, Washington-Jef ferson ’94 James Logan Meloy, Washington-J eff erson ’27

Charles Francis Nesbit, Westminster ’91 Francis Ford Nesbit, Michigan ’17 Harold W aggoner Newton, Illinois ’05; K n ox ’05 W illiam Harding Newton, Purdue ’30 Edward Everett Nicholson, Nebraska ’94 Edward Camp Nicholson, Minnesota ’ 16 W illiam Bernard Norton, Northwestern ’80 Frederick W illiam Norton, Columbia ’19 Edmund Spencer Noyes, Beloit ’92 A lfred Dunkin Noyes, Washington-Lee

’32 A lfred Cookman Oliver, Dickinson ’80 A lfred Cookman Oliver, Jr., West V ir ginia ’06 W illiam Olney, California ’00 W illiam Olney, Jr., California ’31 Edward Payson Otis, Wittenberg ’82 Edward Otis, Wittenberg ’22 Charles Lathrop Pack, Williams ’78 Arthur Newton Pack, Williams ’14 W hitney Palache, California ’83 John Garber Palache, California ’ 16

John Nicholas Meury, Rutgers 31

Samuel Shaw Parks, Amherst ’86 Clarence Runyan Parks, Amherst ’15; Chi cago ’ 15

Robert W alter Miers; Indiana ’70 Daniel Kirkwood Miers, Indiana ’96

LeR oy Nelson Pattison, D e Pauw ’70 Freeman Nelson Pattison, Michigan ’ 15

Edward Godfred W alter Meury, Rutgers

’98 .

FATH ER AND SON Henry Lippincott Patterson, Pennsylvania

’86 Henry Clay Patterson, Washington ’12 James Lindsay Patton, Randolph-Macon ’87 James Lindsay Patton, Jr., WashingtonLee ’22 George Tazewell Patton, Randolph-Macon ’87 George Tazew ell Patton, Jr., North Caro lina ’24 Charles Eliphalet Pearson, Indiana ’02 Bruce Reed Pearson, Utah ’24

461

Robert Dale Richardson, Indiana ’67 Emmet Lee Richardson, Indiana ’91 R. R. Richmond, Idaho ’22 Preston Adelbert Richmond, Idaho ’19 [The father, a graduate student, was initiated two years after his son had re ceived his degree.] Lowe Arnott Ricketts, Nebraska ’97 Lewis Richards Ricketts, Nebraska ’31 Clarence Cromwell Robinson, Bowdoin ’00 Reginald Robinson, Bowdoin ’29 Nelson Lemuel Robinson, St. Lawrence

’77

Henry Parker Pearson, Indiana ’91 John Dunn Pearson, Indiana ’26

Ernest Lefferts Robinson, St. Lawrence

Winston Kent Pendleton, Bethany ’88 Alexander Cassil Pendleton, Bethany ’24

Curtis Burnam Rollins, M issouri ’74 Curtis Burnam Rollins, Jr., M issouri ’12

Frank Clifford Penoyar, Michigan ’96 William Vincent Penoyar, Michigan ’24

George Bingham Rollins, Missouri ’72 Clarkson Rollins, Missouri ’05

Charles Abbott Phillips, N orthwe stern ’92 John Cook Phillips, Northtvestern ’28

Thomas Scott Rollins, North Carolina ’94 Thomas Scott Rollins, Jr., North Carolina ’22

John Henry Philips, Texas ’90 Jack Philips, Texas ’18 Clement Bogardus Potter, Texas ’94 Charles Francis Potter, Texas ’30 W illiam Augustine Poste, St. Lawrence

’7i

Ellsworth Poste, St. Lawrence ’ox John Jones Powell, Denison ’70 Thomas Brundige Powell, Denison ’99 Howard Riley Pratt, Pennsylvania State

’92

R iley Pratt, Lehigh ’30 Charles John Pretzman, Wittenberg, ’86 Allen Iredell Pretzman, Ohio State ’20 Oscar Fitzalen Price, Michigan ’58 George Lanphere Price, Michigan ’86 Arthur Hobson Quinn, Pennsylvania ’94 Arthur Hobson Quinn, Jr., Pennsylvania ’28

’11

Theodore Frelinghuysen Rose, Indiana ’ 75. Frederick Dodds Rose, Indiana ’04 Arthur Eli Rowley, Michigan ’89 Charles Reed Rowley, Michigan ’ 19 Raymond Gilmore Scott, Bethany ’92 Raymond Gilmore Scott, Jr., Bethany ’27 W illiam Levi Scott, North Carolina ’95 Clarence Collins Scott, Washington-Lee

’31 Junius Irving Scales, North Carolina ’53 A lfred Moore Scales, North Carolina ’92 Mortimer Leo Schiff, Amherst ’96 John Mortimer Schiff, Yale ’25 Townsend Scudder, Jr., Columbia ’88 Townsend Scudder, III, Yale ’23 Lawrence H arry Schweer, Texas ’97 Henry Frederick Schweer, Texas ’26

Albert Rabb, Indiana ’86 Albert Livingston Rabb, Indiana ’14

Marshall Emmett Sampsell, Chicago ’96 Marshall Grosscup Sampsell, Yale ’26

W yllys Cad well Ransom, Michigan ’48 Robert Burns Ransom, Michigan ’82

William Grant Seaman, De Pauw, ’91 W illiam Rice Seaman, D e Pauw ’30

Cecil Allen Ray, Indiana ’01 Richard Em ory Ray, Indiana ’28

Charles Frederick Shane, Ohio State ’96 W olfred Milton Shane, Ohio State ’29

W ickliffe Park Ray, Indiana ’01 James Westerman Ray, Wabash ’25

Hubert Lincoln Shattuck, Denver ’89 Robert Cummings Shattuck, Denver ’26

Charles Francis Read, Beloit ’98 Eaton V an W ert Read, Beloit ’29

Jesse Cornell Shattuck, Michigan ’87 Donald Shattuck, Michigan ’ 17

Milton Remley, Iowa ’67 George Edwin Remley, Iowa ’01

Henry Sprague Shedd, Beloit ’86 John Barton Shedd, Beloit, ’31

462

BETA LORE

Evander Shepard, Cumberland ’67 Evander Shepard, Jr., Vanderbilt ’ 17 Francis W ayland Shepardson, Denison ’82 John Whitcomb Shepardson, Denison ’05

Charles W illiam Spofford, Northwestern ’96 Charles M erville Spofford, Northwestern ’23

Charles Franklin Sherman, St. Lawrence ’03 W arren Franklin Sherman, St. Lawrence

W ill iam Cyrus Sprague, Denison ’81 W illiam Griffith Sprague, Michigan ’16; Massachusetts Tech ’ 16

’3i Frank Asbury Sherman, Dartmouth ’70 Maurice Sinclair Sherman, Dartmouth ’94 Oscar W ilder Shryer, Hanover ’67 Frank W ilder Shryer, Indiana ’99

Thomas Marshall Spaulding, Michigan ’02 Stephen Tucker Spaulding, Michigan ’27 Charles Hildreth Spencer, Denison ’92 Frank W inegarner Spencer, Denison ’19 Edward Lee Steele, Wesleyan ’94 Richard Timothy Steele, Wesleyan ’21 George Palmer Steels, Amherst ’88 Jack W orthington Steele, Amherst ’ 13 George Lincoln Stevens, Washington ’74 Benjamin Chandler Stevens, Washington ’04 George W ashington Switzer, De Pauw ’81 Vincent W estfall Switzler, Purdue ’07; Illinois ’07 Samuel W atson Taggart, Miami ’00 George Moore Taggart, University Washington ’24

Arthur Clark Taylor, Western Reserve

’99

Richard Howard serve ’27

Taylor,

Western R e

Gomer Mansfield Thomas, Kansas ’97 Gomer Mansfield Thomas, Jr., Stanford ’28 Roy Arthur Thompson, Michigan ’05 Jay Judson Thompson, Michigan ’31 Reginald Heber Thomson, Hanover '77 James Harrison Thomson, California ’ 11 TH E SH EPPARD S W illiam C. Sheppard, Denison ’84 and his son James H. Sheppard, Lehigh ’13 Marion Daniel Shutter, Denison ’74 Arnold W ilkinson Shutter, Yale ’ 14 Elmer W illiam Smith, Colgate ’91 Albert Irving Smith, Colgate ’28 Harold W eeks Smith, Kansas ’97 H arry W hite Smith, Case ’30 John McMunn Smith, Michigan ’81 W illiam Parkhurst Smith, Michigan ’19

Edgar M iller Thorpe, Michigan ’91 Darius Donald Thorpe, Michigan ’22 Edgar Eggleston Townes, Texas ’01 Edgar Eggleston Townes, Texas ’27 Charles C lay Trabue, Vanderbilt ’92 Charles Clay Trabue, Jr., Vanderbilt ’31 Henry W illiam Tuttrup, Beloit ’01 Roger Russell Tuttrup, Beloit ’24 James Hayden T ufts, Amherst ’84 James W arren Tufts, Chicago ’16 W illis Van Devanter, De Pauw ’81 W inslow Burhans V an Devanter, Yale

’19

Alonzo Mitchell Snyder, Kenyon ’85 Gaylord Kenyon Snyder, Stanford ’ 13

Lucius Lincoln V an Slyke, Michigan ’79 Donald D exter V an Slyke, Michigan ’05

John Young Snyder, Vanderbilt ’95 John Young Snyder, Jr., Tulane ’29

John Fulton VanVoorhis, Denison ’05 Robert VanVoorhis, Denison '31

FATH ER AND SON »!

463

Fred Hale Vose, Maine ’00 Gardner Woodcock Vose, Case ’29

Nathaniel West, Michigan ’46 Andrew Fleming West, Centre ’70

Dow Vroman, Union ’87 Barent Sloane Vroman, Williams ’22

Charles Stetson Wheeler, California ’84 Charles Stetson Wheeler, Jr., California ’12

George Willard Wall, Michigan ’58 Edgar Tingley Wall, Northwestern ’06 William Robinson Warren, Bethany ’89 Edgar Lovett Warren, Bethany ’26 Robert Emmett Waterman, St. Lawrence ’72 Robert Sherman Waterman, St. Lawrcnce ’01 Oscar Leon Watkins, Denison ’92 Osric Mills Watkins, Wabash ’18 Charles Morell Watson, Bethany ’97 Charles Campbell Watson, Bethany ’23 Halford Anson Watson, Bethany ’97 Campbell Hagerman Watson, Bethany ’29 William Perry Watson, Rutgers ’73 Ripley Watson, Rutgers ’08 Charles Aurelius Webb, North Carolina ’89 Robert Stanford Webb, Lehigh ’23 John Henry Weber, Western Reserve ’99 John Henry Weber, Jr., Am herst ’31 William .Bela Wellman, California ’86 Kingsley Stone Wellman, California ’24

William Algar Wheeler, Cornell ’93 Major Montgomery Wheeler, California (L.A .) ’29 Thomas Olearius Whitacre, Bethany ’96 Halford Edwin Whitacre, Denison ’22 Ralph Herbert White, Wesleyan ’94 Ralph Rochefort White, Wesleyan ’29 William Fullerton White, Pennsylvania State ’87 William Foster White, Pennsylvania State ’12 William Fairfield Whiting, Amherst ’86 Edward Chapin Whiting, Am herst ’18 George Fay Wilder, St. Lawrence ’97 Ellis Wareham Wilder, St. Lawrence ’27 George Harrison Wilder, North Dakota ’87 Harrison Wells Wilder, North Dakota ’28 Burwell Goode Wilkerson, Miami ’60 George Rappeen Wilkerson, Missouri ’97 Dwight Kellerman Williamson, Indiana ’01 Edward Paul Williamson, Wabash ’27

SEV EN GAISER B ETA BRO TH ERS

BETA LORE Earl Farwell Wilson, Michigan ’94 Donald Earl Wilson, Michigan ’18 Norman Meclem Wolfe, Denison ’77 Norman Leiter Wolfe, Denison ’26 Riley Fassett Woods, Illinois ’04 Riley Stacey Woods, Illinois ’31

James Warren Woodford, Kansas ’05 James Graham Woodford, University of Washington ’31 Charles Henry Zimmerman, Ohio W es leyan ’64 Charles Hamline Zimmerman, Northwest ern ’91

SEVEN BROTHERS IN BETA THETA PI Charles Sumner Dole, Stanford ’99 Alfred Rowell Dole, Stanford ’03 Norman Eliot Dole, Stanford ’04 Wilfred Heinrich Dole, Stanford ’05 George Ethelbert Dole, Stanford ’07 Sanford Ballard Dole, Stanford ’09 Kenneth Llewellyn Dole, Stanford ’n

Silas Gaiser, Whitman ’17 Paul Frederick Gaiser, Whitman ’17 Louis William Gaiser, Whitman ’21 Joseph Gaiser, Whitman ’21 David Wesley Gaiser, Whitman ’23 Daniel Walter Gaiser, Whitman ’28 Theodore Elmer Gaiser, Whitman ’31

T H E EASTM AN BRO TH ERS OF AM HERST [One of the seven brothers is not a Beta.]

SIX BROTHERS IN BETA THETA PI George Pomeroy Eastman, Am herst ’84 Lucius Root Eastman, Amherst ’95 Alexander Crane Eastman, Am herst ’96 Rufus Porter Eastman, Amherst ’99 Henry Keyes Eastman, Am herst ’01 John Eastman, Am herst ’02

Walter Teis Smith, Michigan ’87 Ernest Frederick Smith, Iowa Wesleyan

’87

Dietrich Conrad Smith, Michigan ’94 Justin Vander Velde Smith, Minnesota '02 Carroll Ninde Smith, Minnesota ’06 Arthur Peiper Smith, Minnesota ’11

FOUR BROTHERS

465

FIVE BROTHERS IN BETA THETA PI Richard Rohrer Becker, Denison ’23 Sam Rohrer Becker, Denison ’24 John W iggim Becker, Denison ’26 Phillip Rohrer Becker, Denison ’28 Thomas Hale Becker, Denison ’30 Edward Simpson Buckley, Ohio State ’ 19 Henry W hite Buckley, Cornell ’23 John Brooke Buckley, Lehigh ’23 Elias Florence Buckley, Cornell ’24 W alter W hite Buckley, Cornell ’25 Clarence Fassett Castle, Denison ’80 Albert Aubrey Castle, Denison ’84 Edward Howard Castle, Denison ’88 W illiam Ernest Castle, Denison ’89 W alter Castle, Denison ’01 Harold Putnam Chaffee, Denison ’03 James Foster Chaffee, Denison ’05 Arthur Billings Chaffee, Jr., Denison ’08 Lawrence E ric Chaffee, Denison ’ 11 Kenneth Malcolm Chaffee, Denison ’ 19

Ludwig Sherman Gerlough, Idaho ’09 Jean Paul Gerlough, Idaho ’ 16 Robert Jacob Gerlough, Idaho ’16 Tillman Daniel Gerlough, Idaho ’17 Charles W ilding Gerlough, Idaho ’20 Thomas Armstrong Knight, Texas ’12 Robert Edward Lee Knight, Jr., Texas

-’iS

Henry Coke Knight, Texas ’ 17 Marion Arm strong Knight, Texas ’ 18 Richard Allen Knight, Texas ’ 19 Louis Rich, Northwestern ’87 Albert Dyckman Rich, Michigan ’91 Frank Dyckman Rich, Michigan ’93 Ben Cornelius Rich, Michigan ’96 W illiam Barrett Rich, Michigan ’97 W illard Spangler W illis, Denison ’09 Robert Erw in W illis, Denison ’ 13 Charles Somerville W illis, Denison ’16 W illis H egler W illis, Denison ’23 Richard Rochester W illis, Denison ’23

F I V E W IL L IS B R O T H E R S F R O M D E N IS O N Below: W illard, ’09; Richard, ’23. A bove: Charles, ’16; Robert, ’ 13; W illis, ’23.

FOUR BROTHERS IN BETA TH ETA PI Henry Ferris Arnold, K n o x ’90 W ilfred Arnold, K n o x ’94 Louis Ray Arnold, K n ox ’97 Ray Mortimer Arnold, K n ox ’02 Henry Brinckerhoff Avery, Minnesota ’93 Edward Strong Avery, Minnesota ’94 Jacob Fowler Avery, Minnesota ’96 Charles Dwight Avery, Minnesota ’02

John Bakewell, Jr., California ’95 Thomas V a il Bakewell, California ’95 Benjamin Bakewell, California ’98 W alter Burling Bakewell, California ’01 Jacob Brilles, Wooster ’83 Charles S. Brilles, W ooster ’92 Leo R oxbury Brilles, W ooster ’96 Samuel Sheldon Brilles, W ooster ’97

466 W illiam ’ 18 Vernon ’24 George ’25 W esley

BETA LORE O liver Barnard, W est Virginia Michael Barnard, West Virginia Fisher

Barnard,

W est

Virginia

Barnard, West Virginia ’31

W illiam Edge Brindley, Wisconsin ’03 Thomas H ayw ard Brindley, Wisconsin ’06 Benjamin Reed Brindley, Wisconsin ’ 14 John W ebster Brindley, Wisconsin ’21 Robert Reid Carpenter, W ooster ’75 Franklin George Carpenter, W ooster ’77 John Lind Carpenter, Wooster ’79 Dan Carpenter, Wooster ’82 Andrew Hartupee Chandler, Case ’99 Lee Lord Chandler, Case ’00 Sellers M cK ee Chandler, Case ’02 Clarence Amasa Chandler, Case ’06 George W ashington Clark, WashingtonJefferson ’48 John Henry C lay Clark, WashingtonJefferson ’52 Rush Clark, Washington-Jefferson ’53 David W ilson Clark, Washington-Jeffer son ’59 Nelson Cunliff, W estminster ’ i i Harold Shiloh Cunliff, Washington ’ 18 W illiam W alter Cunliff, Washington ’ 19 Edward A lbert Cunliff Washington ’29 H enry W elles Durham, Columbia ’95 Leicester Durham, Columbia ’99 Roger Durham, Columbia ’00 Knowlton Durham, Columbia ’01 John Joseph Egan, Nebraska ’ 12 Thomas Germaine Egan, Nebraska ’ 16 Bartholomew Patrick Egan, Jr., Nebraska ’27 W illiam Patrick Egan, Nebraska ’30 Harold David Gordon, Wesleyan ’92 David W illiam Gordon, Wesleyhn ’ 16 Donald Covil Gordon, Wesleyan ’ 19 Carlton Covil Gordon, Wesleyan '22 Daniel Bedinger Gregg, Cincinnati ’ 12; Colorado Mines ’ 13 W . A lfre d Gregg, Cincinnati ’14 E llis Bailey Gregg, Jr., Cincinnati ’ 16 Clifford Cilley Gregg, Cincinnati ’17

George Jacob Hoffman, California ’95 Ross Browne Hoffman, California ’95 K arl Frederick Hoffman, California ’99 John Dietrich Hoffman, California ’01 Charles Nes Irvine Carnegie ’21 Jamie T. Irvine, Denison ’24 Robert Fulton Irvine, Ohio State ’27 George Colton Irvine, Carnegie ’21 Charles Frederick Keyes, Minnesota ’96 W illard Collins Keyes, Minnesota ’98 Allan Collins Keyes, Minnesota ’00 Robert Howard Keyes, Minnesota ’04 Charles Leonard Lewis, W est Virginia ’20 Hiram Carson Lewis, West Virginia ’27 John Lambert Lewis, W est Virginia ’27 Clarence Emerson Lewis, W est Virginia ’29 W illard Leroy Linville, Bethany ’08 H arry W ilson Linville, Bethany ’ 12 Archie W inter Linville, Bethany ’13 John A lv a Linville, Bethany ’13 Albert Stoneman Long, Chicago ’09 Esmond R ay Long, Chicago ’ 11 Lothar Reymond Long, Northwestern ’14 Byron Southland Long, Northwestern ’ 18; Dartmouth ’18 W illard Denver Love, Washington State ’08 R ay Emerson Love, Washington State ’ 18 Thomas W arren Love, Washington State ’22 Otho M cK inley Love, Washington State

’23 Harold Porter Melcher, Pennsylvania ’ 17 W illiam Cramp Melcher, Jr., Pennsylvania

’18

Charles Porter Melcher, Pennsylvania ’22 Martin Melcher, Pennsylvania ’25 W illiam Bruce McConnel, Dartmouth ’19 Thomas Stokes McConnel, Dartmouth ’23 Stewart Phillip McConnel, Dartmouth Richard Appleton McConnel, WashingtonJefferson ’26 Thomas M cKean Thompson McKennan, Washington-Jefferson ’79 William McKennan, Washington-Jefferson

’86

W ym an Drummond Herbert, Columbia ’11 W illiam Hedenberg Herbert, Columbia ’ 14 Philip Sidney Herbert, Columbia ’19 James Drummond Herbert, Columbia ’19

Moore Stockton McKennan, WashingtonJefferson ’89 Thomas Ramsey McKennan, WashingtonJefferson ’89 George Tazewell Patton, Randolph-Macon ’87 James Lindsay Patton, Randolph-Macon

Isaac Reynolds Hitt, D ePauw ’49 W illis Martin Hitt, DePauw ’51 John Hitt, D ePauw ’53 Robert Roberts Hitt, DePauw ’55

Robert W illiams Patton, Randolph-Macon ’91 William Rives Patton, Randolph-Macon ’92

’87

THREE BROTHERS

467

Hyrum Pingree, Jr., Utah ’20 LeGrande Pingree, Utah ’21 Dale H. Pingree, Utah ’21 Harold Pingree, Utah ’22

George Brown Watson, Kansas ’84 Archie E. Watson, Kansas ’86 Campbell McGhie Watson, Kansas ’90 John Watson, Kansas ’96

W illiam Joseph Roddey, Jr., Davidson ’14 Benjamin Dunlap Roddey, Davidson ’ 17 W illiam Lyle Roddey, Davidson ’22 John Roddey, Davidson ’23

V ictor Clarence Vaughan, Michigan ’00 John W alter Vaughan, Michigan ’02 Henry Frieze Vaughan, Michigan ’ 12 W arren Taylor Vaughan, Michigan ’ 13

Stewart Godron Taylor, Utah ’ 11 Arthur Dunham Taylor, Utah ’11 Samuel E. Taylor, Utah ’ 13 Raymond Clausen Taylor, Utah ’ 19

Rogers Bagley Weld, Northwestern ’23 W allace W hitmore Weld, Northwestern ’24 Stanley Addison Weld, Northwestern ’29 Herbert Hamilton W eld, Northwestern ’30

Samuel Pogue Todd, Cincinnati ’20 W illiam Robert Todd, Jr., Cincinnati ’24 Francis W est Todd, Cincinnati ’24 Richard W arren Todd, Cincinnati ’26

Charles David Williams, Jr., Kenyon ’ 18 Robert Dickson Williams, Kenyon ’23 Benedict Williams, Kenyon ’27 Ernest Brainerd W illiams, Kenyon ’31

Howard Chester W alker, Am herst ’23 Herbert Milo W alker, Amherst ’24 Richard Cowles W alker, Am herst ’28 Donald Albert W alker, Amherst ’30

Charles Ephraim Westerveldt,, Ohio ’92 W illiam A lfre d W estervelt, Ohio ’91 James Howard W estervelt, Ohio ’94 Alanson Pearl W estervelt, Ohio State ’98

G E N E R A L S E C R E T A R Y B A I L Y A N D H IS T W O B E T A BROTH ERS

THREE BROTHERS IN BETA TH ETA PI Theodore Floyd Adams, Denison ’21 Earl Frederick Adams, Denison ’21 George Lodowic Adams, Denison ’30 Isaac Emens Adams, Northwestern ’79 John Porter Adams, Northwestern ’91 Charles Pelham Adams, Northwestern ’95

Edward T rue Alford, Iowa ’00 Lore A lford, Iowa ’04 Robert Cushman A lford, Iowa ’06 Charles Bennett Allen, D e Pauw ’97 Joseph Percival Allen, De Pauw ’97 Fred Jerome Allen, De Pauw ’00

468

BETA LORE

George Everett Anderson, Colgate ’20 H oratio Edward Anderson, Colgate ’22 Edward Everett Anderson, Colgate ’25 Paul Appenzellar, Dickinson ’95 Donald Cameron Appenzellar, Dickinson

’99

David Kenneth Appenzellar, Dickinson ’05 Charles Bernard Arnot, Nebraska ’23 Leland Dill Arnot, Nebraska ’24 Maynard Estil Arnot, Nebraska ’28 Edward A yres Baily, Am herst ’05 Harold James Baily, Am herst ’08 George Irving Baily, Am herst ’ 17 Frank Harbert Barbee, Vanderbilt ’ 19 John M urrey Barbee, Vanderbilt ’21 A llen Jones Barbee, Vanderbilt ’21 W ilbur Lee Beal, Denver ’15 Ernest Elmo Beal, Denver ’17 Harold Chauncey Beal, Denver ’25 Charles Beard, Minnesota ’ 18 W illiam Lovatt Beard, Minnesota ’20 John Beard, Minnesota ’31 George Beardsley, Iowa ’93 Simeon Beardsley, Iowa ’94 John Beardsley, Iowa ’98 Gilbert Addams Beaver, Pennsylvania State ’90 Hugh M cAlister Beaver, Pennsylvania State ’95 Thomas Beaver, Pennsylvania State ’98 Stephen Davison Bechtel, California ’23 W arren A. Bechtel, Jr., California ’23 Kenneth K arl Bechtel, California ’26 Clark E. Bell, Nebraska ’04 Paul Thomas Bell, Nebraska ’08 Dwight D ay Bell, Nebraska ’09 George W ashington Fleming Birch, Wash ington-J efferson ’58 Francis Augustus Birch, WashingtonJefferson ’61 John Mitchell Birch, Washington-J eff erson ’72 Rollo Lavante Bigelow, Michigan ’05 Chester W alton Bigelow, Michigan ’ 13 Eugene Sidney Bigelow, Michigan ’ 16 Richard H owe Bostwick, Wabash ’24 Harold K in g Bostwick, Wabash ’25 Scott Sidney Bostwick, Wabash ’25 Claire Bowman, University o f Washing ton ’ xi Hugh Austin Bowman, University of Washington ’ 11 Donald Bowman, University o f Washing ton ’23

Frederick George Bracher, Oregon State ’26 Edwin W illiams Bracher, Oregon State ’28; Wittenberg ’28 George John Bracher, Wittenberg ’31 Arthur Hyslop Briggs, Northwestern ’81 Alvah Green Briggs, Northwestern ’82 Herbert Fisk Briggs, Northwestern ’89 Darby Henagan Brown, Jr., WashingtonLee ’25 W illiam Bestor Brown, Washington-Lee

’30

Charles Pratt Brown, Washington-Lee ’31 Castle Marlatt Brown, Denison ’ 14 V ergil Neal Brown, Denison ’ 16 Grant Houston Brown, Northwestern ’21 Norris Brown, Iowa ’83 Elw yn Frank Brown, Iowa ’87 Leon Brown, Iowa ’90 Louis Mason Bruch, Michigan ’16 M erritt Bruch, Michigan ’21 Ralph Roger Bruch, Michigan ’23 George Howland Butler, Illinois ’ 15 W alter Carter Butler, Illinois ’18 Eugene Kincaid Butler, Illinois ’26 W ard Osborne Chaffee, Ohio State ’05 Abner Vernon Chaffee, Ohio State ’10 Clarence Milton Chaffee, Jr., Ohio State ’22 W illiam Chamberlain, Nebraska ’ 14 Berlin Guy Chamberlain, Nebraska ’ 16 Truman Chamberlain, Nebraska ’21 Samuel Hemple Chauvenet, Washington

’71

Louis Chauvenet, Washington ’76 W illiam M arc Chauvenet, Washington '79 H enry C. Churchman, Jr., Indiana '24 Steele Bright Churchman, Purdue ’25 John B. Churchman, Purdue ’28 George Washington Clark, WashingtonJefferson ’48 John H enry Clay Clark, Washington-J e f ferson ’52 Rush Clark, Washington-J eff erson ’53 Victor Edward Cooley, California '12 John Louis Cooley, California ’18 George V an Horn Cooley,'California ’24 Jere Ellis Cocke, North Carolina ’04 Tim othy D eW itt Cocke, North Carolina ’10 Eugene Rankin Cocke, North Carolina ’11 W yan Nelson Cool, Colorado College ’28 Norman Bruce Cool, Colorado College ’29 Arthur Riley Cool, Northwestern ’30 Everitt Morton Cooper, Columbia ’03 Frederick Linn Cooper, Columbia ’05 John Raymond Cooper, Columbia ’08

THREE BROTHERS John Harold Cowie, Columbia ’21 William Robertson Cowie, Columbia ’28 James Emerson Cowie, Columbia ’29

Charles Jefferson Estep, Wooster ’81 William Gaston Estep, Wooster ’82 Josiah Madison Estep, Wooster ’88

Winchell McKendree Craig, Ohio W es leyan ’15 Thomas Harold Craig, Ohio Wesleyan ’ 16 Robert Alvin Craig, Ohio Wesleyan ’20

Albert Eisner, Jr., Illinois ’07 Edward Eisner, Illinois ’ 12 Robert Eisner, Illinois ’14

Volney Howard Craig, California ’87 John W alker Craig, California ’92 Charles Volney Craig, California ’07 Maynard Craig, Ohio Wesleyan ’ 16 Paul Stuart Craig, Ohio Wesleyan ’19 David Stuart Craig, Ohio Wesleyan ’24

469

Frank Clement Faude, Minnesota ’97 Frederick Morris Faude, Minnesota ’99 Paul Faude, Minnesota ’00 Harold Scott Fistere, Colgate ’26 John Cushman Fistere, Colgate ’28 Charles Mead Fistere, Colgate ’28

Stanley Jeffersop Crew, Ohio State ’06 Joshua Arthur Crew, Ohio State ’11 Robert Todd Crew, Ohio State ’16 Henry Huston Crittenden, M issouri ’81 Thomas Theodore Crittenden, Missouri ’82 W illiam Jackson Crittenden, Missouri ’85 Charles Brown Cornell, Ohio State ’02 Fred Albert Cornell, Ohio State ’06 Paul Cornell, Ohio State ’13 Field Tribolet Dailey, Indiana ’ 16 Joseph Leonard Dailey, Indiana ’ 17 George Simmons Dailey, Indiana ’25 Stephen Lloyd Darsie, Bethany ’82 George Darsie, Bethany ’92 Burns Darsie, Bethany ’95 Edward Apps Davidson, Tulane ’24 George Apps Davidson, Tidane ’25 Hugh Craw ford Davidson, Tulane ’28 Roy Edward Dalahoussaye, Tulane ’20 Arthur Alexander Delahoussaye, Tulane ’23 Malcolm Louis Delahoussaye, Tulane ’31 H artley Greaves Dewey, Union ’13 D eW itt Greaves Dewey, Union ’21 Leland Greaves Dewey, Union ’28 Lelon Ausil Doolittle, St. Lawrence ’75 Marshall Erwin Doolittle, St. Lawrence ’75 ' Rollin Edson Doolittle, St. Lawrence ’78 John MacFarland Douglas, Pennsylvania ’25 Charles Douglas, Pennsylvania ’26 Stephen Ralph Douglas, Pennsylvania ’28 Ausel Eckmann, University of Washing ton ’20 Raymond Leroy Eckmann, University of Washington ’22 Lloyd Francis Eckmann, University o f Washington ’27 Basil Beebe Elmer, Cornell ’13 Charles W ellington Elmer, Cornell ’ 19 Clarence Jefferson Elmer, Cornell ’28

T H R E E G IB B S B R O T H E R S Robert John Foster, Bowdoin ’25 Frank Foster, Bowdoin ’28 Sydney Rae Foster, Bowdoin ’30 James de Fremery, California ’ 12 Leon de Fremery, California ’12 Paul W illiam de Fremery, California ’ 19 Eugene Horace Garnett, Michigan ’95 Gwynn Garnett, Michigan ’99 Cyrus Logan Garnett, Wisconsin ’06; Chi cago ’06 Milo Sargent Gibbs, Chicago ’15 George Milton Gibbs, Iowa ’25 Gerald A lbert Gibbs, Iowa ’27 Charles Edgar Gilliam, Virginia ’ 15 Richard Davenport Gilliam, Virginia ’19 Alexander Gordon Gilliam, Virginia ’26

470

BETA LORE

Amandus Newton Grant, Michigan ’76; D e Pauw ’74 John H enry Grant, Michigan ’82 Daniel Philip Grant, Michigan ’89 H arry Edmund Greene, Wabash ’88 Jesse Austin Greene, Wabash ’89 Philip F arrow Greene, Wabash ’93 A rth ur Floyd Griffiths, St.- Lawrence ’97 Eben Griffiths, St. Lawrence ’07 David Griffiths, St. Lawrence ’ 14 A rth u r M errill Hagar, Union ’05 Paul Jonathan Hagar, Union ’06 Luther A lfre d Hagar, Union ’14 Clarence: A . Hanna, Bethany ’ 10 W illiam Ewing Hanna, Bethany ’ 17 Milton Am os Hanna, Bethany ’21 Frederick George Harkness, Kenyon ’ 12 Herbert Shedd Harkness, Kenyon ’19 Raymond Meres Harkness, Kenyon ’23 John Edward Hartshorn, Dartmouth ’02 Elden Bennett Hartshorn, Dartmouth ’ 12 George Ernest Hartshorn, Dartmouth ’17 Horace W alter Hawkins, Michigan ’92 H enry French Hawkins, Michigan ’98 Leonard Hawkins, Michigan ’03 W alter Stone H ayford, Northwestern ’18 M axw ell Fullm ore H ayford, Northwest ern ’22 John Bryant H ayford, Northwestern ’23 Andrew Hopewell Hepburn, Indiana ’21 W illiam M cGuffey Hepburn, Indiana ’22 Charles K eith Hepburn, Indiana ’29 W alter Lowrie Hervey, Denison ’84 H enry D wight Hervey, Denison ’89 Clifford Reeder Hervey, Denison ’91 W illiam M cKendree Hester, D e Pauw ’48 Andrew B riggs Hester, D e Pauw ’54 M elville Craven Hester, D e Pauw ’55

John W alker Hundley, Denison ’ 19 Bernard Lewis Hundley, Denison ’24 W illiam Thomas Hundley, Denison ’25 Howard Milton Hunt, Denison ’07 Roland Elmer Hunt, Denison ’09 W ilbur Alden Hunt, Denison ’ 10 Frank Cameron Jones, Richmond ’93 Fred Atwood Jones, Richmond ’94 Clifford Apperson Jones, Cornell ’00 David Thatcher Keating, Ohio State ’99 H arvey Thatcher Keating, Ohio State ’02 Edwin Russell Keating, Ohio State ’06 Eugene Patrick Kennedy, California ’97 Leo K ing Kennedy, California ’04 Gerald Driscoll Kennedy, California ’12 H arry Lardner Keys, Denison ’73 William Barr Keys, Denison ’74 Benjamin Keys, Denison ’74 W illiam Harkness Keys, Miami ’98 Pierson Douglas Keys, Miami ’99 Richard Thompson Keys, Miami ’03 George W emberley Killebrew, Jr., Van derbilt ’ 16 John Frierson Killebrew, Vanderbilt ’23 Joseph Buckner Killebrew, Vanderbilt ’25 W alter W illiam K raft, Northwestern ’ 14 Milton John K ra ft, Northwestern ’16 V ictor Emmanuel K raft, Northwestern ’23 Arno Dominic Krause, Washington *05 W alter Gottfried Krause, Washington ’06 K urt A lfred Krause, Washington ’08 Andrew W illiam Kurrus, Washington ’ 18 Albert Bernhardt Kurrus, Washington ’21 Herbert Frederick Kurrus, Washington

’25 Leslie Alexander Lee, St. Lawrence ’72 John Clarence Lee, St. Lazvrence ’76 Frederic Scheller Lee, St. Lazvrence ’78

E lijah Justin Hills, Indiana ’21 George Strough Hills, Indiana ’22 Clarence Ballard Hills, Indiana ’23

Sears Lehmann, Washington ’03 Frederick W illiam Lehmann, Jr., Wash ington ’07 John Stark Lehmann, Washington ’10

H enry Sherwin Howard, California ’06 Sidney Coe Howard, California ’15 Bruce Howard, California ’ 19

James Jerome Lillie, Utah ’16 Herbert Parmeter Lillie, Ut'ah ’23 W alter Theodore Lillie, Utah ’24

M ax Alexander Houston, Kansas ’24 Theodore B. Houston, Colorado ’27 George Moses Houston, Washington ’28

H enry

Hubert Shattuck Howe, Denver ’08 Julian Osgood Howe, Denver ’09 Ernest Joseph Howe, Denver ’21 Levi Allen Hughes, Indiana ’79 James Darwin Hughes, Indiana ’83 Frank Howard Hughes, Indiana ’85

Long,

Washington-J eff erson

’94

John D. Long, Washington-J eff erson ’94 Edwin C. Long, Washington-J efferson ’01 Robert Davis Longyear, Williams ’14 Clyde Stanley Longyear, Williams ’14 Philip Owen Longyear, Williams ’18 W alter Phelps Loomis, Nebraska ’ 10 Gilbert Churchill Loomis, Nebraska ’15 Maurice Morton Loomis, Nebraska ’ 17

THREE BROTHERS Erie Bostwick Lowndes, Toronto ’ 19 Ray Howland Montgomery Lowndes, Co lumbia ’21 George Henry Lowndes, Toronto ’30 James Burns McClements, Jr., Pennsyl vania State ’27 William Montgomery McClements, Penn sylvania State ’28 John K eil McClements, Pennsylvania State ’30

Henry McCormick, St. Lawrence ’98 Robert Matthew McCormick, St. Law rence ’98 James Frank McCormick, St. Lawrence ’ 10

47i

Lowell W ilson Miles, Indiana ’22 Charles K elly Miles, Indiana ’26 Robert Francis Miles, Indiana ’29 Elquist Collier Miller, Hanover ’72 John D. Miller, Hanover ’68 Elquist Collier Miller, Hanover ’72 Robert Edmund Miller, Iowa ’08 Horace Edgerton Miller, Iowa ’ 19 Ralph M errick Miller, Iowa ’19 Frederick Magoon Miller, Iowa ’22 Alexander McColm Miller, Iowa ’25 Jesse Earle Miller, Iowa ’28 Thomas W ilson Montgomery, Dartmouth

’74

Charles Albert Montgomery, Dartmouth

Edwin Charles McDonald, Ohio State ’ 18 John M iller McDonald, Ohio State ’23 Roy Morton McDonald, Ohio State ’25

Levi Claypool

James Reilly McManus, Iowa ’ 15 John Cameron McManus, Iowa ’21 Thomas Francis McManus, Cincinnati ’26

Harold Edward Morgan, Rutgers ’19 Russell W illiam Morgan, Rutgers ’25 W illard Robert Morgan, Rutgers ’28

Hugh W ebster McPherrin, Northwestern ’04 Howard Chesney M cPherrin, Northwest ern ’06 W illiam Lane McPherrin, Northwestern

Jeffra Cline Morris, Bethany ’95 W ade Hampton Morris, Bethany ’95 Jacque Sumner Morris, Bethany ’19

% John Chester Malm, Colorado ’21 Lawrence Louis Malm, Colorado ’23 Thomas Robert Malm, Colorado Mines ’28 W illiam Adam Magee, Calif ornia- ’87 Fred English Magee, California ’9 7 W alter Magee, California ’98 George Culley Manly, Denver ’85; M ichi gan ’87 Charles Skinner Manly, Ohio Wesleyan

’88 Robert W oolf Manly, Michigan ’96 Thomas Fields Marrow, Davidson ’25 James Chalmers Marrow, Davidson ’28 Charles Kennon Marrow, Davidson ’31 W illiam Wadell Meloy, Washington-J e f ferson ’94 Charles Clay Meloy, Washington-Jefferson ’02 Robert Bingham Meloy, Chicago ’97 Samuel Seymour Merrick, Johns Hopkins

’11

W illiam Spedden Merrick, Johns Hopkins

’15

Robert Graff Merrick, Johns Hopkins ’17 Lawrence Lew is Mertz, Stanford ’23 Veith Theodore Mertz, Stanford ’23 H awley Mertz, Stanford

Montgomery,

Dartmouth

’75

David Lorenzo Oleson, Utah ’12 V ictor Leander Oleson, Utah ’ 12 Samuel W arren Oleson, Utah ’13 Gilman Osgood, St. Lawrence ’ 18 Russell Osgood, St. Lawrence ’20 Foster Osgood, St. Lazurence ’21 Arthur Howard Ozias, Rutgers ’24 Harold Egner Ozias, Rutgers ’27 James Russell Ozias, Rutgers ’29 Halbert Eleazer Paine, Western Reserve

’45

George Paine, Western Reserve ’49 James H oyt Paine, Western Reserve ’54 W illiam Beresford Palmer, Jr., Michigan

Albert Stevens Palmer, Michigan ’ 17 Edwin Barbour Palmer, Michigan ’ 17 Alexander Abram Patterson, Pennsylvania State ’89 David Leslie Patterson, Pennsylvania State ’95 Stuart Y oung Patterson, Pennsylvania State ’07 James Lea Pauli, Washington-J efferson ’69 A lfre d Pauli, Washing ton-Jefferson ’76 Archibald W oods Pauli, Washington-J e f ferson ’65 Boies Penrose, Harvard ’81 Charles Bingham Penrose, Harvard ’81 Richard Alexander Fullerton Penrose, Jr., Harvard ’84

BETA LORE

472

A lfred Thruston Pope, Indiana ’62; B eth any ’62 James W orden Pope, Indiana ’66 Hamilton Pope, Jr., Indiana ’67 Francis Harold Pyke, Utah ’16 Charles Leslie Pyke, Utah ’18 M acTavish Pyke, Utah, ’23 Gordon Aiken Ramsay, Jr., Northwestern ’27 Robert Scott Ramsay, Northwestern ’28 Kenneth Symonds Ramsay, Northwestern ’29 Robert H enry Randolph, Northwestern ’ 18 Jesse Albert Randolph, Northwestern ’ 18 George Edgar Randolph, Nebraska ’25 W ilton Gorton Ratcliff, Trinity ’75 E dgar N orval Ratcliff, Trinity ’76 Charles Alpheus Ratcliff, Trinity ’81 Frank W ayne Ray, Indiana ’99 Cecil Allen Ray, Indiana ’01 W ickliffe Park Ray, Indiana ’01 Carlos Seward Reed, Illinois ’25; Amherst

Dwight Edwin Saylor, Pennsylvania State

>25

Kenneth Howard Saylor, Pennsylvania State ’27 W ilbur Alan Saylor, Pennsylvania State ’29 Ovid Rogers Sellers, Chicago ’04 Sanford Sellers, Jr., Chicago ’13 James M acBrayer Sellers, Chicago ’ 17 Marcus Mahlon Washington Carrol Meter Washington Clyde Wendell Washington

Shanks, University of ’21 Shanks, University of ’21 Shanks, Un iversity of ’24

Charles W entworth Sharer, Northwestern

’13

David M ax Sharer, Northwestern ’14 Samuel Dwight Sharer, Northwestern ’22 Levi Lee Shepard, Denison ’05 W illiam Hughes Shepard, Denison ’07 W ade Phillips Shepard, Denison ’14

James H oward Reed, Illinois ’28 W illiam Vernon Reed, Illinois ’29

Francis W ayland Shepardson, Denison ’82 Daniel Shepardson, Denison ’88 John Ernest Shepardson, Denison ’02

Harold Alston Rice, West Virginia ’20 W orth Kirkwood Rice, West Virginia ’23 Ralph Leslie Rice, W est Virginia ’25

George Shipley, Randolph-Macon ’87 James Lester Shipley, Randolph-Macon ’89 John Gere Shipley, Randolph-Macon ’90

Lawson Carter Rich, St. Lawrence ’82 John Montgomery Rich, St. Lawrence ’87 Charles A verill Rich, St. Lawrence ’87

Oscar W ilder Shryer, Hanover '67 Joseph Everleigh Shryer, Indiana ’72 Mark Hughes Shryer, Hanover ’79

Alexander Richardson, Ohio ’70 Alonzo Blair Richardson, Ohio '72 Andrew Carroll Richardson, Ohio ’80

Ernest Brown Skinner, Ohio ’88 Charles Edward Skinner, Ohio State ’90 Beverly Oden Skinner, Ohio ’00

Leander Armstead Riely, Hanover ’95 Samuel Lee Riely, Hanover ’ 14 James W hitcomb Riely, Hanover ’19

Roy

’25

Jere Ellis Cocke, North Carolina ’04 Tim othy D eW itt Cocke, North Carolina ’ 10 Eugene Rankin Cocke, North Carolina ’11 David Barton Robnett, M issouri ’ 11 Dudley Anderson Robnett, Missouri ’ 16 James Overton Robnett, Missouri ’20 Alexander Creighton Runnette, Pennsyl vania State ’ 19 John Runnette II, Pennsylvania State ’24 Charles W ilson Runnette, Pennsylvania State ’25 W illiam James Rushton II, WashingtonLee ’22 James Franklin Rushton, Jr., Washing ton-Lee ’23 Rinaldo A llen Rushton, Washington-Lee

’25

W illiams Washington Harold Ernest Washington John F. Sievers, ington ’29

Sievers, University of ’2s "Sievers, University of ’25 Jr., University of Wash

Philip Montague Smith, Westminster ’19 Craw ford E arly Smith, Westminster ’27 Beverly Lawson Smith, Westminster ’31 Archibald Stuart, Cincinnati ’ 14 Francis Hamilton Stuart, Kenyon ’16 Douglas Maclean Stuart, Cincinnati ’24 Lewis Edward Swett, Illinois ’09 Elwell Payson Swett, Illinois ’13 Courtland Riche Swett, Illinois ’ 19 Eugene A lfred Sommer, Union ’96 A lfred George Sommer, Union ’96 W alter James Sommer, Union ’98 John Cecil Spaulding, Michigan ’97 Oliver Lyman Spaulding, Michigan ’95 Thomas Marshall Spaulding, Michigan ’02

THREE BROTHERS

473

John Newell Speir, Colorado College ’27 ~t Charles Robert Truitt, Pennsylvania ’24 Edward Bunyon Speir, Colorado College | Birney Batchellor Truitt, Pennsylvania ’29 ’28 Thomas Jackson Turner, Oklahoma 23 Kenneth Guinty Speir, Colorado College Prewitt Bates Turner, Missouri ’23 ’30 John Hickman Turner, Missouri ’26 Francis M errick Starr, Ohio Wesleyan ’85 John Harding VanBrunt, Cornell ’ 16 Eugene Quentin Starr, Ohio Wesleyan Frederick Camille VanBrunt, Michigan ’89 ’ 18 Nathan Percy Starr, Ohio Wesleyan ’91 Alexander Peter VanBrunt, Michigan ’20 Malcolm M allick Steck, Dickinson ’21 Richard Carrol Steck, Dickson ’25 Roger Harold Steck, Dicksonson ’27 Frederick John Stevenson, Pennsylvania State ’21 William Sharpless Stevenson, Pennsyl vania State ’25 John Robert Stevenson, Pennsylvania State ’29 Frank Taggart, Wooster ’ 14; Illinois ’ 14 John Findlay Taggart, Illinois ’17 David Alexander Taggart, Illinois ’20 Rush Taggart, Wooster ’71 Frank Taggart, Wooster ’74 Elmore Findlay Taggart, W ooster ’81 W illiam Bruce Talbott, W est Virginia ’16 Edgar W ayne Talbott, W est Virginia ’21 Ralph Talbott, W est Virginia ’31

Percy Hampton VanD yke, Westminster ’98 Jacob Rainey VanDyke, Westminster ’ 12 Paul Shepherd VanDyke, Westminster ’14 Ricker VanM etre, Minnesota ’06 Horace VanM etre, Iowa ’23 Maurice Evans VanM etre, Iowa ’23 T racy Stebbins Voorhees, Rutgers ’11 John Schenck Voorhees, Rutgers ’ 16 Frederic Voorhees, Rutgers ’17 W illiam Robinson Warren, Bethany ’89 James Monroe Warren, Bethany ’96 John Watson Warren, Bethany ’09 George Jerauld Welborn, Wabash ’95 Oscar Parsons Welborn, Wabash ’96 Maurice James Welborn, Indiana ’02 Robert Rothing Weber, Denison ’ 14 Spencer George Weber, Denison ’17 Ford Richardson W eber, Denison ’21

Maverick Terrell, De Pauw ’96 George Holland Terrell, D e Pauw ’00 Lewis Terrell, D e Pauw ’04

W alter Lowrie Whallon, Hanover ’99 Albert Kitchell Whallon, Hanover ’05 Arthur James W hallon, Hanover ’07

Thomas Volney Thornton, Hanover ’69 H enry Clarke Thornton, Hanover ’71 Joseph Francis Thornton, Indiana ’88

James Arthur W herry, Nebraska ’13 Kenneth Spicer W herry, Nebraska ’ 14 Thomas Elon W herry, Nebraska ’23

Stuart McMillan Thompson, Minnesota ’06 Samuel Joseph Thompson, Minnesota ’08 Lawrence Thompson, Purdue ’ 12

William Preston Wickham, Michigan ’ 16 Stanley T. Wickham, Cornell ’ 17 Frederick Benedict Wickham, Michigan ’21

John Melvin Thurber, Colgate ’05 Arthur Edward Thurber, Colgate ’09 Clarence Howe Thurber, Colgate ’12 A lfred Carl Torgeson, Iowa ’ 12 Arthur Enoch Torgeson, Iowa ’ 14 Severin Emil Torgeson, Nebraska ’22 Ernest Wildbahn Townes, Texas ’98 Edward Eggleston Townes, Texas ’01 John Charles Townes, Texas ’07 Abram Arnold Tremper,' University of Washington ’09 Bailey Tremper, University o f Washing ton ’ 14 Edward Payson Tremper, Jr., University of Washington ’ 19 Joseph Alexander ’ 19

Truitt,

Pennsylvania

Ernest Ferdinand Wiederholdt, Washing ton ’01 Carl A lfred Wiederholdt, Washington ’04 Ferdinand Rudolph Wiederholdt, Jr., Washington ’ 11 Samuel Becker Grant, Washington ’ 18 John Moore Grant, Washington ’22 Edward W arren Grant, Washington ’25 Allister W ylie, K n ox ’20 H arry Silvy W ylie, Washington ’24 Donald McKenzie W ylie, Washington ’25 Ford Crutcher Witherspoon, Texas ’02 Clifford Witherspoon, Texas ’09 Horace Trabue Witherspoon, Texas ’ 10 James Phelps Wood, Chicago ’ 18 Quinton Wood, Chicago ’ 19 Ashford M iller Wood, Chicago ’25

BETA LORE

474

H enry Avbe Woodward, Williams ’ ig Burton Knowlton W oodward, Williams

’19

Hermon H all Woodward, Williams ’22 Lew is Cass W ooley, Bethany ’84

Joseph Fenton Wooley, Bethany ’87 K irby Smith W ooley, Bethany ’93 W illiam Yeates, Utah ’15 Kenneth W ilson Yeates, Utah ’ 18 Russell Andrew Yeates, Utah ’21

TWO BROTHERS IN BETA THETA PI The pairs of brothers in the fraternity are legion. No attempt was made to secure their names. Chapters were requested to indicate the num ber of such pairs found upon their rolls. While not-all made report, it is evident that a complete showing would include nearly 3,000 sets of two brothers in Beta Theta Pi. If these 6,000 members were added to the kin ship listings in the preceding pages, the power of kinship in determining the membership of our fraternity would be ever more startlingly illustrated.

S IX B E T A S IN J A P A N L eft to right: A. W . Place, Bethany ’98; G. M. Fisher, California ’96; W . W . W hite, Wooster ’ 12; C. F. McCall, Westminister ’05; N. S. Lobdell, St. Lawrence ’00; R. E. Chandler, Yale ’04. Four of these played tennis together a number o f times before they discovered that all were Betas.

Chapter X V I I I — The Monuments

MILLSAPS MEMORIALS Reuben Webster Millsaps, De Pauw ’54, was one of a group of seven or eight boys from the same neighborhood in Mississippi, who, because of the lack of good college facilities in their vicinity, made their way north for college training. There were three or four Millsaps boys, a Wheat, a Wright and perhaps some others, all of them related by blood. They first went up the Mississippi River on a flat boat, then on up the Ohio to a point somewhere near Louisville, whence they crossed into Indiana. M ajor Millsaps, with his relatives Uriah Millsaps and J. J. Wheat, attended Hanover College during the two years 1851-1852. There he organized a “ club” for students of small means who “ bached,” their board and lodging costing them about $4.50 a month. The next fall he transferred to Indiana Asbury, now De Pauw, from which he graduated with the bachelor of arts degree in 1854. His name appears in the Beta catalogue following those of William Green M ill saps, ’53, his older brother, and William Right Millsaps, ’53, his cousin. In all likelihood he had a part in the establishment of the Hanover chapter in 1852. The early records of the chapter were burned some years ago and no one knows definitely the conditions under which the chapter was founded or who the founders were. This much is clear, M A JO R R E U B E N W . M IL L S A P S , that there was a vital connection between De Pauw ’54 the Delta at Indiana Asbury and the Hanover group. In a letter written on October 1, 1852, by Elijah E. Edwards of Asbury in the list of the chapter members is the name “ William G. M ill saps, Hargroves, Miss.,” and the sentences, “ With regard to the Hanover scheme, we bid you Godspeed. One of our number, Mr. Millsaps, is from there, and he approves the plan, and says that there is a fine opening; and from his knowledge of Brother Galbraith he is confident of success. W e have a number of students from that institution and they appear to be fine fellows and, if fortune favors, many of them shall yet flourish in the field of Betaism. This letter, written to Henry T. Helm, of Miami, seems to indicate that the movement for a chapter at Hanover was being fostered by Miami. But further correspondence, dated in the spring of 1853, shows that the chapter at Hanover was started, probably, by Elijah Edwards, Mark L. De475

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Motte and “ Brother Millsaps,” the specific Millsaps not being indicated, as there were three members by that name in the Indiana Asbury chapter at the time. It would seem reasonable to suppose that a Millsaps who had spent two years at Hanover, as Reuben Millsaps did, might have had a lively in terest in such a project. A t any rate “ Brother Millsaps” was reported to have made several trips from Greencastle to Hanover, during the year 1853, when the Hanover chapter was founded. Mark DeMotte told George W. Switzer, De Pauw ’81, of his own connection with the birth of Iota, but the

M A IN

B U IL D IN G , M IL L S A P S

COLLEGE

latter made no notes of the conversation, not realizing the historic value of the reminiscences, Whether Major Millsaps was a chapter founder or not, Millsaps College at Jackson, Mississippi, is his living memorial. W . M. Buie, vice-president and trust officer of the Capital National Bank of Jackson, Mississippi, another institution founded by M ajor Millsaps, tells how his fraternity inter est remained: “ Major Millsaps was a loyal fraternity man to the very last. He was the founder of Millsaps College, a Methodist institution belonging to the two Conferences of Mississippi, and gave the college something over half a million dollars. I remember on one occasion the matter came up

M ONILAW MEMORIAL CLUBHOUSE

477

about fraternities at -Millsaps College and M ajor Millsaps silenced the opposition in a very diplomatic yet firm manner which brought gladness to the hearts of fraternity men and the Board of Trustees of which I was a member. I belonged to the Kappa Alpha fraternity. He was one of Missis sippi’s greatest philanthropists.” Mr. Millsaps, in addition to his college benefactions, also made large gifts toward the establishment of the Methodist orphanage in Jackson, the building of the magnificent Galloway Memorial Methodist Church, and the Whitworth Female College in Brookhaven, Mississippi.

A M IL L S A P S C A M P U S V IE W

THE TOM MONILAW MEMORIAL CLUBHOUSE Among the tall pines of northern Wisconsin, at Camp Highlands, a sum mer camp for boys on Plum Lake, stands an unusual memorial to a member of Beta Theta Pi. It is a clubhouse around which center the activities of some 125 boys each vacation time. Erected in memory of Thomas James Monilaw, Chicago ’24, who with three other members of the Chicago chapter lost his life in an automobile accident, October 21, 1921, while driving to the Chicago-Princeton football game at Princeton, New Jersey, it serves to

BETA LORE

T H E T O M M O N IL A W C A M P

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IN T E R IO R , M O N IL A W C A M P

TH E W ELL HOUSE

479

remind succeeding generations of campers of the outstanding personality of the Beta who since 1911, each year from small boyhood to young manhood, had contributed so much to the life of the camp owned by his father, Dr. W . J. Monilaw, of the University of Chicago. The clubhouse was completed in 1925, largely from contributions of fellow-campers, past and present, through a committee headed by Dunlap Cameron Clark, Chicago ’ 17, and the late James Parker Hall, Sigma Chi, dean of the University of Chicago Law School. Donations were made both by the Chicago (Alpha) Alumni Association of Beta Theta Pi and the na tional fraternity, and seventeen individual Betas from seven different chap ters were represented among the contributors.

W E L L H O U S E E R E C T E D IN 1908 The portals were taken from the old college building

THE W ELL HOUSE A T INDIANA In 1908 Theodore Frelinghuysen Rose, Indiana ’75, then president of the Board of Trustees of Indiana University, presented the institution a well house, located in the center of the natural rolling campus. This house, a memorial of the class of 1875, contains the original portal of the old college building which was used prior to 1888 when the University moved to the

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T H E CLUB HOUSE

T H E M EM ORIAL FIR E P L A C E T H E C A M PBELL GARD CAMP A memorial to Charles Campbell Gard, Amherst ’17, Wisconsin ’17, provided by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Homer Gard, of Hamilton, Ohio.

W H EELER-BENTLEY FUND

481

||<;, present campus. The well house is known to Indiana Betas as the center of chapter life in Bloomington. A t the end of every serenade and after ini tiations the “ Loving Cup” is sung from within the portals of the eight-sided building. Whether Brother Rose thought of the similarity of the building to the Beta pin is not known but Pi chapter Betas are careful to tell their | friends of the Beta building on the campus.

THE WHEELER-BENTLEY FUND W

| II ! I

il l ia m

agee,

California ’87

I am glad that I am a Beta. I welcome the initiates of this evening in the name of the old guard which started the Omega chapter here fortyseven years ago. I have been a Beta for forty years and I shall never come into the Beta house, especially 011 occasions like this one, without missing the two best Betas of Omega, Charles S. Wheeler and Charles H. Bentley. They were both my dearest personal friends. Their lives were such as endeared them to all who knew them, while the signal success of each in his chosen field was marked and distinguished. For each of them the lines which I have repeated here on another occasion are most appropriate: “And still on that night when pleasure fills up T o its highest top sparkle each heart and each cup, W here’er my path lies, be it gloomy or bright, M y soul, happy friends, shall be with you that night, Shall join in your revels, your sports, and your wiles, And return to me beaming all o’er with your smiles, Too, blest if it tells me that, midst the gay cheer, Some kind voice had murmured, ‘I wish he were here’ ”

Not in sadness do I remind you what these two men meant to the older alumni of this chapter, but rather with pride jn their accomplishments and joy in the fullness of their lives. They were men in the full sense of that term: “ W e ne’er shall look upon their like again.” What an example to the younger generation and what an inspiration to all of us to lead lives ; that are worthwhile! In memory of these two sterling Betas who passed away within a few months of each other, the older Betas of this chapter have pledged themselves to raise a fund, to be known as the Wheeler-Bentley Loan Fund, to help wor thy students through college, preference being given to members of Omega chapter of Beta Theta Pi. It is planned to raise not less than $5,000 and up to $10,000. Five Betas already have subscribed a total of $2,000. Every Beta who knew these men will contribute. In this way a permanent me lt; morial to Charles S. Wheeler and Charles H. Bentley will be established and will be most fitting and appropriate to the memory of these beloved sons of Omega. If I could tell you what the friendship and comradeship of Charles S. Wheeler and Charles H. Bentley meant to most of the older Betas, of our camping and hunting and fishing trips in the mountains in the companionship of these men, you would fully understand the following verses written by one Beta to the memory of these tw o : “ Some have a child to bind them, Some have a heartfelt song, W hile others, perhaps, have sorrow T o keep their love-pact strong.

482

BETA LORE But they and I have camp fires, And days on wondrous streams, A nd star-lit nights in the mountains, T o hold our love and our dreams F or the dawn o f a day in the future W hen shadows shall pass away, And light on the upland pastures Shall shine on a perfect day. For I ’ll meet again my comrades, F ar away from earthly strife, In the land of our hearts’ desire And the joys o f immortal life.”

(Part of a banquet speech at the initiation of Omega chapter, January 22, 1927).

the

M cC o n n e l l m e m o r i a l

The campus of the University of Virginia has been enriched by a statue of James Rogers McConnell, Virginia ’ 10. It was dedicated at the June finals in 1919. An editorial in the Virginia Alumni News at the time said: “James McConnell was among the first if not the first of the students of the university to tender his services to the allied cause in the autumn of 1914. He was the first of the sons of the University to die in battle. There' was a certain singular quality of heroism in the circumstances of his devotion and death that make a great appeal to the students and alumni of the institution. In consequence of this, a certain sum of money came in generally unsolicited to the Alumni Secretary towards the erection here of some sort of simple memorial to his name and fame. This action of the friends of McConnell was mentioned in conversation by the president of the university to W . W . Fuller, ’78, and John B. Cobb. These gentle men, inspired by their affection for the institution and by their friendship and acquaintance with McConnell, asked the privilege of authorizing Gutzon Borglum, a sculptor of international fame, to undertake a large memorial that would be alike a monument to McConnell, a memorial of heroic conduct, and a work of art, embodying the new form of valor inherent in the work of the aviator. The thoughtful and generous offer was made to the presi dent of the university in the presence of Mr. Borglum, and a commission was immediately given by them to him in the summer of 1917- Many delays prevented the completion and setting up of the statue on the grounds of the university. This was consummated with great distinction at the finals of 1919. The memorial nobly fulfills the idea of the donors— ‘to recall to future generations the beauty of heroic death, the virtues of duty, valor and self-sacrifice, and to keep green the memory of one who counted it a gladness to give his life for a lofty end.’ “ A s one comes down the path from the Rotunda to West Range one sees at the end of the vista, rising from the earth on the green knoll beyond the hollow, a vision of heroic youth taking flight. Wing-girt arms upraised in bold silhouette, it soars forward and upward with magnificent elan. Draw ing nearer, one sees in the nearly nude symbolic figure, the youthful athletic form, the clear-cut features of Jim McConnell. The wings, the close-fitting

THE MC CONNELL MEMORIAL

483

aviator’s helmet, the girded knife, bespeak the new soldier of the air, whose daring adds another unimagined page to the military glory of the past, and gives the sculptor a new ideal, worthy of his best efforts. Hanging far for ward with the unstable and delicate balance of flight, knees bent, back arched, determined, aspiring face upturned— the figure shows that the imagi nation of the sculptor has nobly responded to his task; that Mr. Borglum has given us a work of the greatest artistic value. “ On two sides of the pedestal of marble are carved low reliefs of air planes in flight, one falling; on the two others, inscriptions: directly below the figure at the back: . JAMES . ROGERS . MC CONNELL . . BORN . MARCH . I4.TH . 1 887 . STUDENT . UNIVERSITY. OF . VIRGINIA . . VOLUNTEER . IN . THE . A R M Y. OF . FRANCE . SERGEANT . AVIATOR . . LAFAYETTE . ESCADRILLE . DECORATED . WITH . T H E . CROSS . OF . WAR . . KILLED . IN . BATTLE. IN .'THE . AIR . . MARCH . I9TH . I 9 1 7 .

and in front, the line unsurpassed as interpretation whether of the life or the statue: . SOARING. L IK E . AN . EAGLE. INTO . . NEW . HEAVENS . OF. VALOR . AND . DEVOTION .

The statue was formally presented to the University on behalf of the donors, by Reverend Robert Williams, Virginia ’09, Beta Theta Pi chapter mate and close friend of the aviator. The Alumni News for July, 1919, pub lished some stanzas by Armistead C. Gordon, the celebrated Virginia lawyer, author, and poet, which were inspired by the Borglum statue: T H E A V IA T O R “ There • There There There

are new paths to adventure ’mid the suns and constellations, are visions to discover in the whirlwind and the thunder, are enemies to conquer far above the world and nations is freedom to be fought for, and to give life for, up yonder,

“W here the earth’s far spaces vanish and the stars sing soft and tender, W here the soul o f man, unfettered, leaves the dross o f things below, I shall find the joy, not found here, in the boundless ether’s splendor,— I shall quench the spirit’s thirstings at the founts to which I go.” He sa id ; and springing upward, with a face of adorations, W ith youth’s faith and strength and purpose in his soaring star-fiight blended T ill he found the thing he sought for ’neath the silver constellations, Down great air-lines, through cloud-breakers, beyond thought, his way he wended. He who flew to fight for freedom, girded with youth’s aspirations, Eager, radiant, soaring onward through the silence of the skies, Found the freedom he left earth for there amid the constellations, W ith death’s shadow on his forehead and life ’s wonder in his eyes.

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In accepting the statue Professor Dobie of the university said in closing: “ So here on this little Virginia hillside, looking out into the majestic Blue Ridge that seems with majestic calm to watch over these hallowed arcades that nurtured him and which he loved, on behalf of the University of Virginia, I accept this monument to Jim McConnell. Its dignity, its simplicity, and its beauty will fittingly commemorate and incorporate into our institutional life his daring, his deeds and his death. I accept it in the serene assurance and in the abiding faith that it will tell to endless student generations how he enhanced the university’s storied fame, how he per petually enriched the spiritual heritage of her glory.”

T H E A V IA T O R Fam ous statue b y G utzon Borglum on the U n iv ersity of V irg in ia campus, erected by the F rench Governm ent to the m em ory o f J a m e s R o gers M c C o n n e ll, Virginia ’ 10, who died flyin g fo r F ran ce. D ecorated with the C ro ix de G uerre while in the F rench am bulance service, he fell at D eux Detroit, March 1 g, 1917, a member of the fam ous L afa y ette E sca d rilk .

MICHIGAN MEMORIALS

485

MICHIGAN MEMORIALS B

est

G allogly,

Michigan

’22

Lambda chapter takes great pride in giving a brief account of the most dignified, heart stirring, and enjoyable event that has ever taken place with its portals; the celebration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding of the chapter and the dedication of two bronze tablets, commemorating the death of those valiant Lambdas who, in the first instance, gave their

T H R E E B E T A C A P T A I N S A T M IC H IG A N

lives that this nation might live, and, in the second, that democracy and not autocracy, might rule the world. On November 13, 1845, Benjamin Franklin Millard, Western Reserve ’43, founded in the university a chapter of Beta Theta Pi. The whole institution had but fifty students at the time and of this number seven were honored with Beta’s badge. O f these seven, one, Paul Wideman Rawles, left in his senior year to fight in the Mexican War. These were days of hardships, when sturdy frontiersmen were winning

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the West. Not many years later the battle-cries of Civil W ar began to echo in every home. A t this time there came into Lambda chapter in the war class of 61 Isaac H. Elliott, a real fighter and a living example of the principles of Beta Theta Pi. Shortly before his graduation, Fort Sumter was fired upon; the men of Michigan immediately formed a volun teer company with Elliott as captain. Imbued with the spirit of war the women of Ann Arbor made a flag for these boys, which was presented by President Tappan of the university to the volunteers through Captain

R E V . C L E M E N T J. W H IP P L E , Michigan ’67 Oldest living member of Lambda Chapter. He re mained true to Beta Theta Pi when all his chapter mates but one proved traitors.

Elliott, at one of the most historic meetings that has ever taken place at Michigan. It was not long after this event, however, that it was thought advisable for the men. to go home and enlist in their respective local com panies. So Elliott became a member of the Thirty-Third Veteran Volun teer Regiment of Illinois, being discharged at the end of the war as a brevet brigadier general, already in his youth “ shining of his own light.” And so he has up to the present day reflected the true spirit of Beta Theta Pi

M IC H IG A N M E M O R IA L S

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T H E M IC H IG A N P A L L A D IU M Rare copy o f the first issue of the Michigan Palladium, December 1858, showing recognition of Beta Theta Pi as the first fraternity at the University of Michigan.

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BETA LORE

upon every soul with whom he has become associated. He has now traveled a long way in life’s journey and all but one of his old companions of the war days are gone. He was lonesome for their comradeship as he spoke these words at the anniversary: “ You can understand that tonight, ‘I feel like one, W ho treads alone Some banquet hall deserted, W hose lights are fled, W hose garlands dead, And all but he departed.’ ”

W ith an unsteady but most reverent voice he dedicated the Civil W ar tablet to his brothers in Beta Theta Pi and in Unionism, who so nobly gave their lives that their country might endure. Before an audience of over one hundred brothers, Colonel Elliott— Colonel because he prefers it to General— painted a picture of the chapter and of the events of the early day which becomes more vivid and lasting as time goes on— a scene of action in which men of the Beta brain caliber blazed the path of civilization. W e should like to tell more about this loving brother, but space pro hibits; so we turn to the other events of the celebration. Our chapter godfather, Junius E. Beal, we should say, Honorable Junius E. Beal, but would rather speak of him as “Junie,” gave an extremely interesting history of the chapter, telling of the hardships, of the achievements and the reminis cences of Lambda chapter, during the many years in which it has led the way at Michigan. General Oliver Spaulding made a scholarly speech upon Lambda’s part in the World W ar and upon the lives of the brothers whose names stand out in bold relief upon the bronze tablet as a memorial of Beta courage and fidelity. Seven from Lambda chapter gave their all in the world con flict, one-sixth of the number killed in the whole university. Thomas Spaulding presented the Spaulding scholarship cup to William Henry Schwartz of the class of ’23. Herbert T rix of Detroit acted as chairman and, assisted by the alumni, was responsible for the splendid success of the anniversary celebration. In the planning for this notable meeting Major George M. Chandler, ’98, had a large part. — Beta Theta Pi, January, 1921

CHAPTER CUPS Quite a number of chapters have silver award cups given by individuals for special purposes and highly prized. Among such are: Bethany. The Frank J. Kent Scholarship Cup, awarded annually to the senior having the highest scholastic record for the four years course. California (at Los Angeles). The Armien Handy Memorial Cup, upon which, each semester, the names of the freshman and sophomore having the highest scholarship standing are placed. Case. The W orld W ar Memorial Cup, commemorating the Lambda Kappa men killed in the war, upon which each year is placed the name of the freshman who ranks highest in scholarship. The gold star brothers honored are Clarence Virginius Ashbaugh, Richard W alter Blair, and Leland Stanford Mugg.

CHAPTER CUPS

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E D W A R D C. B O U D IN O T , Michigan ’65 W ho refused to join traitors in secession from Beta Theta Pi

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BETA LORE

Centre. The Henry Clay Reed, Jr., Scholarship Cup, awarded annually to the member having the highest scholarship, with replacement provision in case the same individual wins it twice in succession and thus secures it as his personal possession. Carnegie. A freshman award cup for recognition of service to the chap ter. A freshman scholarship cup, for recognition of high ranking in scholar ship. Chicago. The Kimmel Scholarship Cup, awarded annually to the fresh man with the highest scholastic average. Colgate. The Dr. John Greene Memorial Scholarship Cup, awarded an nually to the freshman having the largest number of quality points. Colorado. The freshman Honor cup. Dartmouth. An honor cup, upon which annually the name is inscribed of the senior who has done the most for the chapter and gained distinction on the campus. Denison. The Edward A . Deeds Efficiency Trophy Cup, inscribed an nually with the name of the member considered by chapter vote to have made the best record for all-round efficiency. Denver. The William E. Spandow Memorial Cup, awarded annually to the freshman who shows the finest Beta spirit. D e Pauw. The scholarship cup, upon which annually the name is en graved of the freshman making the highest grades. Dickinson. The scholarship award cup, awarded annually to the mem ber of the sophomore class making the highest scholastic average. Georgia. The freshman award cup, voted annually to the freshman con sidered most valuable to the chapter. Hanover. The Iota chapter freshman cup, presented by George Henry Prime, ’27, awarded annually to the best all-round freshman. Illinois. The Wooglin Cup, awarded annually to the member considered of greatest value to the chapter. Indiana. The freshman scholarship cup, awarded annually to the fresh man making the best grades. Iowa. The Edward A. Adams Cup awarded annually to the senior with the highest average in scholarship. Iowa State. Tau Sigma Scholastic Cup, awarded to the graduating senior with the highest scholastic average. The Shuler Memorial Cup, awarded to the pledge with the highest scholastic average in his first year. Kansas State. The Mrs. Mayme MacLeod Scholarship Cup, awarded annually to the member with the highest scholastic average. Knox. The Midkiff Memorial Cup, awarded annually to the freshman who ranks highest in scholarship and activities. Michigan. The Oliver Lyman Spaulding Scholarship Cup, awarded an nually to the member attaining the highest scholarship. The Charles Pugh Davis Cup, awarded annually to the member voted by his chapter mates to be the best all-round Beta. Minnesota. The Bob Thompson Cup, presented by Robert Mitchell Thompson, ’95, awarded annually by an alumni committee to one of the members nominated by the active chapter as most outstanding during the year.

CHAPTER CUPS

491

Missouri. The Ber'ry W . McAlester Scholarship Cup, awarded annually to the member making the highest scholarship average. The Thomas S. Barclay Scholarship Cup, awarded annually to the fresh man with the highest scholarship average. The Sidney Maestre Cup, awarded annually to the member most out standing in college activities. Nebraska. The Sophomore Trophy Cup, awarded annually to the sopho more who best combines high scholarship with college activities and interest in the chapter. The Interfraternity Athletics Trophy Cup, awarded annually to the mem ber most active and efficient in inter fraternity athletics. North Dakota. The Best Beta Cup, awarded annually to the senior or junior selected as the most representative Beta. The freshman scholarship cup, awarded annually to the freshman with the highest scholastic average. Northwestern. The scholarship and athletics cup, awarded annually to a selected member who makes a B average or a varsity letter. The freshman cup, awarded annually to the freshman chosen by the chap ter as best in activities. Ohio. The Roach Cup, awarded annually to the member chosen for the most activities, for popularity on the campus and for his efforts to build up Beta Theta Pi. Ohio State. The McDonald Activity Cup, presented by John McDonald, ’23, and Roy McDonald, ’25, awarded annually to the sophomore voted to be the most active in campus affairs. The William Lucius Graves Scholarship Cup, awarded annually to the freshman who stands highest in scholarship. Ohio Wesleyan. The Hiram M. Perkins Scholarship Cup, awarded an nually to the freshman with the highest grades. Oklahoma. The Thompson Scholarship Cup, gift of Ralph, Lee and Wayman Thompson, on which each semester the name is engraved of the member having the highest grade average. The Efficiency Trophy, awarded annually to the member, adjudged by vote of the chapter to have been of the greatest benefit to the chapter. Oklahoma State. The scholarship cup, awarded annually to the mem ber with the highest scholarship average for the year. Oregon. The Goodman Trophy, awarded annually to a freshman on the basis of scholarship, college activities, interest in the chapter, and good fel lowship. Oregon State. The Frank L. Snow Scholarship Trophy, awarded an nually to the upperclassman making the highest standing in scholarship. The Harold Roy Taylor Freshman Efficiency Cup, awarded annually to the best all-round freshman. Pennsylvania State. The sophomore scholarship cup, awarded annually to the sophomore making the highest scholastic average. Purdue. The freshman scholarship cup, awarded annually for best schol arship in the Freshman class. South Dakota. The Odmund Jostad Scholarship Cup, awarded each semester to the active member or pledge having the highest scholarship standing.

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BETA LORE

The Clark Scholarship Cup, awarded each semester to the freshman having the highest scholastic average. Syracuse. The Chancellor Sims Cup, awarded annually to the freshman who most nearly approximates the ideals of Beta Theta Pi. Toronto. The Clarence L. Newton Cup, for freshman proficiency in fraternity history. Tulane. The chapter has two medals instead of cups, the Charles J. Bloom medal for scholarship and the Theodore Simmons efficiency medal. Washington. The sophomore cup, awarded annually to the best all round sophomores. The scholarship cup, awarded annually for the highest scholarship. Washington-J eff erson. The scholarship cup, awarded annually to the freshman making the highest scholarship average. Washington-Lee. The freshman scholarship cup, presented by W . E. Smith, ’20, and W . J. Rushton, ’21, awarded annually to the freshman with highest" scholastic standing. Washington State. The freshman scholarship cup. University of Washington. The chapter has a scholarship tablet, upon which each year is placed the name of the member ranking highest in scholar ship in each of the four college classes. Wesleyan. The Clark W . Davenport Scholarship Cup, awarded annually to the individual with the highest scholarship average. ' The Delegation Scholarship Cup, awarded annually to the class whose members rank highest in scholarship. Western Reserve. The- freshman scholarship cup, awarded annually to the freshman attaining the highest grades for the year. The senior activities cup, awarded annually to the senior voted most ac tive on the campus. Westminster. The Neal S. Wood Activity Cup, awarded annually to the member most active on the campus during the year. West Virginia. The freshman scholarship cup. Whitman. The Class of 1927 Activity Plaque, upon which is engraved each year the name of the member in each class considered most active. Yale. The efficiency cup, upon which, each year, is engraved the name of the member who, in the judgment of his chapter mates, makes the best record for all-round efficiency as a college man.

MEMORIALS TO MEMBERS OF BETA THETA PI It is recognized that the following list of memorials is faulty by reason of incompleteness. Some of the chapter presidents failed to co-operate in its preparation in spite of two letters of urgent appeal. Those who note omissions are invited to report them through the fraternity magazine. Even with a recognition of the fact that many Betas who have been honored by memorials are not listed, the roster is one of which the fraternity is proud. W orth P ickett Abbott, St. Lawrence ’00, and Hugh Abbott, St. Law rence ’03, are kept in memory by the Abbott-Young Memorial Temple on the campus of St. Lawrence erected by their mother, Mrs. Anna R. Abbott,

MEMORIALS TO MEMBERS

493

in co-operation with Mr. and Mrs. Owen D. Young who paid tribute to their son, John Young, St. Lawrence ’24. The temple which is connected with the Beta Zeta chapter house by an underground passageway was dedi cated March 6, 1926. Benjam in Strickier Adam s, Yale ’18. Gold Star brother of the World War. The fireplace in the lounge of the Phi Chi chapter house was given in his memory by his mother, Mrs. Madge Updike Adams. It was first built in a former house and was transferred to the new. It is a World W ar memorial to Adams and his chapter mates who died in the war and is in scribed with the names of a number of Phi Chi members who made the supreme sacrifice.

TH E LOUNGE A T Y A L E Showing on the left the W orld W ar Memorial Fireplace

Jam es M arkham M arshall A m bler, Washington and Lee ’67, surgeon on duty with the ill-fated Jeannette, died near the mouth of the Lena River in Siberia in October, 1881. A tablet to his memory is placed upon the wall of the historic chapel at Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, in which lie the remains of Robert E. Lee. The inscription reads: In Memory of J am es M ar k h a m M ar sh all A mbler P ast Assistant Surgeon, U. S. N avy Born in Fauquier County, Virginia, December 30, 1848 A student o f Washington College, 1865-1867 He perished on the banks of the Lena River, Siberia, in the retreat of Capt. De L ong’s company from the U. S. Steamer Jeannette in October, 1881. He declined the last

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chance o f life that he might help his comrades. His last written words were the confident expression o f his Christian faith. T o him “ Duty was the noblest word in the English language. Erected by his college friends and classmates.

■ — P ictu re by O. N orris Smith

David P e rcy Anderson, Union ’ 14. Gold Star brother of the World War. Name on bronze tablet in Nu chapter house. H arold T ay lo r Andrews, Maine ’ 18, the first man from the state of Maine to be killed in the W orld W ar, is recalled by the name of the Harold T. Andrews Post No. 17, American Legion, in Portland, Maine. In the permanent home of the Post is a bronze bas relief of Andrews by Victor Kahili, placed above the mantel in the main room. Lem uel Tow ers Appold, Dickinson ’82, will always be remembered at Dickinson College because of his gift of two notable rooms. Memorial Hall is located in the exact middle of Old West, Dickinson’s most prized and historical building, the entrance to the hall being designed by Latrobe, archi tect of the National Capitol at Washington. The Hall contains several original paintings and the original desk of John Dickinson, the founder of the college. The Macaulay room, in memory of former President Macaulay, is furnished in strict colonial type. It also contains many important refer ence volumes on New England history. Clarence V irginius Ashbaugh, Case ’ 19, Gold Star brother of the W orld W ar. Name is on a W orld W ar Memorial Scholarship Cup awarded by Lambda Kappa chapter each year to a freshman. W ald em ar Aulick, Columbia ’26, captain of the wrestling team while in college, who died of tuberculosis in 1927, is recalled by a memorial cup awarded annually at Columbia for proficiency in wrestling. A lexander W atso n Baird, Toronto ’ 13. Gold Star brother of the World W ar. Name on bronze memorial tablet in the Theta Zeta chapter house. .t . >

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M E M O R IA L R O O M IN “ O L D W E S T ” A T D IC K IN S O N

Raimond D uy Baird, Wesleyan ’09. The chapter house of Mu Epsi lon at Wesleyan University is his memorial, his parents and family friends having contributed largely to its erection. A bronze tablet over the fire place bears his relief and a tribute to him. W illiam Raimond Baird, Stevens ’78; Columbia ’81. The standard authority on American College Fraternities, Baird’s Manual, perpetuates his memory, he having first prepared and published such a directory. The maga zine endowment fund of Beta Theta Pi is named in his honor, “ The Baird Fund.” His name is on a bronze memorial tablet in the Alpha Alpha chap ter house, and there is a memorial in the Sigma chapter house. He and his wife, Jennie Mansfield Baird, are honored among “ The Ten,” whose generosity laid the foundations of “ The Founders’ Fund of Beta Theta Pi,” they having left to the fraternity approximately $65,000 for endow ment purposes. The Baird Library of American College Fraternity Litera ture in the New Y ork Public Library was begun by him and bears his name. Clinton K irby Banning, Cincinnati ’03, left a legacy of $500 to the Founders’ Fund of Beta Theta Pi and provided in his will for a similar amount for the Cincinnati chapter, the Beta Nu of Beta Theta Pi. Charles Reid Barnes, Hanover ’77, is honored in memory annually by the American Society of Plant Physiologists through the award of the Charles Reid Barnes Honorary L ife Membership in the society. Professor Barnes of the University of Chicago died February 24, 1910. The receipt of the award is counted a high distinction. Shepard B arclay, Virginia ’69. The Shepard Barclay Memorial Fund in the Law School of Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, in

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amount $8,500, was established by a nephew of Judge Barclay in his memory, to be used as a scholarship and loan fund. Joh n B ascom , Williams ’49. President of the University of Wiscon sin, 1874-1887. The main university building, Bascom Hall, is named in his honor and memory. Joel Allan B attle, Miami ’59. The Joel Battle Lodge of Knights of Pythias in Nashville, Tennessee, is named for him. He died in the battle of Shiloh in 1862. See story about his burial on another page. Jam es Addams Beaver, Washington-Jefferson ’56, is recalled by an oil portrait at Pennsylvania State College. He was president of the College Board of Trustees from 1897 until 1914, and acting president of the college in 1907. A picture of him is also cherished in the administration building of Washington and Jefferson College. There is a street named for him in Philadelphia and another one in State College. The two athletic fields at Pennsylvania State College, “ Old Beaver” and “ New Beaver” are testi monials to him. His nephew, James G. White, gave the college $25,000 for the James Addams Beaver Loan Fund, the interest of which will be used to aid needy men students. There is an alcove in the college library named for him. George Loom is Becker, Michigan ’46, No. 1 on the Lambda chapter roll. Becker County, Minnesota, is named for him, as is the town of Becker, Minnesota. The Minnesota chapter house contains two splendid French pier-glass mirrors presented by him and cherished in his memory. H erb ert Fred erick Behrens, Washington-Jefferson ’97, established at Washington and Jefferson College the H. F. Behrens, Sr., scholarship foun dation in memory of his father by a gift of $1,200. George W esley Bellows, Ohio State ’05, is honored in the Theta Delta chapter house by eight sketches made by him in student days at Ohio State University. Found in a small garret in the chapter house a short time before his death on January 8, 1925, they have been appropriately framed and now hang on the walls of the dining-room and the music room. Bellows was pre-eminent not only as an artist but as a lithographer as well. His works are to be found in all the great art galleries of the United States and have been exhibited in the museums of Europe. But four years away from the university, having withdrawn in his Junior year, he was awarded the Second Hallgarten Prize, N.A.D., in 1908 and then followed a long list of prizes awarded by various world known art clubs, art academies, insti tutes and expositions. He was a member of the National Academy, of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the New Society of Artists, the National Arts Club, and many others both nationally and internationally known. Mr. Bellows was decidedly an American painter. He had never studied abroad but his talent carried him to recognized eminence. His can vasses had a daring confidence about them which contemporaries were quick to acclaim.

MEMORIALS TO M EM BERS

MICHIGAN C H A PTER CIVIL W AR MEMORIAL

498

BETA LORE

Jam es W atso n Bingham , Michigan ’62. A Civil W ar sacrifice. on bronze tablet in Lambda chapter house.

Name

R ichard W a lte r Blair, Case ’ 19. Gold Star brother of the World War. Name is on a World W ar Memorial Scholarship Cup awarded by Lambda Kappa chapter each year to a freshman. R obert A rcher Bow lby, Wesleyan ’ 10. Gold Star brother of the W orld W ar. Picture upon a memorial mantel in the Mu Epsilon chapter house. D e W itt Bristol B race, Boston ’81. Professor of Physics at the Uni versity of Nebraska, 1888-1905. The Physics laboratory at the university, “ Brace Hall,” is named for him. Brace H*ft, Physical LraWrotory, Uaiverstty ol Nebr««ke.

LINCOLN. Nt*i»

B R A C E H A L L , P H Y S IC S L A B O R A T O R Y U N IV E R S IT Y OF N E B R A S K A

Richard Bradford, North Carolina ’54, who was killed in battle in 1861, while with the First Florida Volunteer Infantry, Confederate States Army, is recalled by Bradford County, Florida, named in his honor. E m m e tt F o re st B ranch, Indiana ’g6, is represented among the por traits of governors of Indiana hung in the state capitol at Indianapolis by a painting by Simon P. Baus. Joseph T rum an B ray , Wesleyan ’ 19. Gold Star brother of the World W ar. Picture upon a memorial mantel in the Mu Epsilon chapter house. Benjam in Gratz Brow n, Transylvania ’46, United States Senator 1863-1867; Governor of Missouri 1870-1872; running mate with Horace Greeley on the Greeley and Brown liberal Republican ticket for president and vice-president of the United States in 1872, is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery near Kirkwood, Missouri, where he lived. Over his grave there is a granite shaft twenty feet high which bears the inscription:

MEMORIALS TO MEMBERS

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ftCTG R CLARENCE VAUGHAN, jit,! 9 00 GEORGE ANDREW WEILER, 1913 1915 BR U CH .1916 : fEfH&tlOLD EDGAR LOUD. 1918 1? â&#x20AC;&#x153; C t t t t u c a l a k s m i t h , 1919

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M IC H IG A N

CH A PTER W ORLD

W AR

M E M O R IA L

499

500

BETA LORE In H onor o f One of Her Most Illustrious Citizens B. G R A T Z B R O W N Born in Kentucky M ay 8, 1826 Died in Missouri Dec. 13, 1885 This Monument Has Been Erected by the S T A T E O F M IS S O U R I

Louis M ason Bruch, Michigan ’ 16. Gold Star brother of the World War. Name on bronze tablet in Lambda chapter house. H en ry A ugustus Buchtel, DePauw ’72, is kept in memory at the University of Denver, of which he was Chancellor for some years, by a portrait hanging in the chapel. A boulevard near the University bears his name. H arold M oore Burke, University of Washington ’06, a charter member of Beta Omega chapter who was drowned in 1904, is buried in a myrtle-

Picture by Cleone H. Soule, M iami ’10

covered grave in the Tacoma, Washington, cemetery, his tombstone bear ing a Beta pin. R oy Livingston B u m s, Wesleyan ’ io. Gold Star brother of the World War. Picture upon a memorial mantel in the Mu Epsilon chapter house.

MEMORIALS TO MEMBERS

ONE OF TH E COLON N A D E S IN T H E M E M O R IA L S T A D IU M , U N IV E R S IT Y OF IL L IN O IS

Charles E dw in Caldwell, Illinois ’ n . Gold Star brother of the World War. Honored by a tree planted April 23, 1920, on the University of Illinois campus bearing his name and class on a bronze plate and by a column in the memorial stadium in Champaign.

T H E C A R R J U N IO R H IG H S C H O O L

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Charles Diven Campbell, Indiana ’98, until his death, for ten years, 1905-1915, associate professor of music in Indiana University and author of “A Hymn to Indiana,” is remembered in an unique way through a local honorary music fraternity which used his initials in its Greek name, Chi Delta Chi. Joh n Pinckney C arr, Hanover ’9 1; Indiana ’81, for a quarter of a cen tury city superintendent of schools in Vicksburg, Mississippi, was honored by the citizens in 1924 who named a new high school building the Carr Junior High School. W illiam H erbert Carruth, Kansas ’8o, is recalled by the Carruth Memorial Prize Fund at the University of Kansas. Raised by former pupils and friends from all over the world, it provides for an annual competition, designed to encourage the development of poetic talent and to lead young men and women to aspire toward high and fine achievement. He is also im mortalized by his famous poem, “ Each in His Own Tongue.” Stephen Chase, Dartmouth ’96, who for a long time held one of the world hurdling records and who was the intercollegiate high hurdle champion while in college, has an athletic field at Dartmouth named for him. It is located southeast of Memorial Field. This field is divided into four sections, two being laid out in the form of baseball diamonds and two, football grid irons. An additional part is reserved for the use of trackmen, practicing for the hammer throw. Joh n Goodrich Clark, Ohio Wesleyan ’89; Pennsylvania ’91. The John Goodrich Clark Gynecological Clinic of the University Hospital, University of Pennsylvania, is named in his honor.

COCH RAN H A LL A T B ETH A N Y Erected to the memory of Percy Bayard Cochran, Bethany ’00, Yale ’02

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P e rcy B ayard Cochran, Bethany ’00; Yale ’02, is kept in honor at Bethany College by Cochran Hall, a dormitory building given by his father in his memory. It provides accommodations for 150 students. Schuyler Colfax, De Pauw ’54. Vice-president of the United States 1869-1873. American geography perpetuates his memory in many place names. A county in Nebraska of which the county seat is Schuyler is named for him. His name appears in the list of Nebraska counties emblazoned on the State House at Lincoln. A heroic statue stands in his home city, South Bend, Indiana, where a street bears his name, and a heroic statue in In dianapolis, Indiana. The Rebecca Degree of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows was created by him, the ritual being his work. The Colfax Guards, Uniform Rank of Odd Fellows in Mankato, Minnesota, is named for him; and in the railroad depot in Mankato a bronze tablet marks the spot where he dropped dead, while awaiting a train.

— P ictu re b y K a rl W . Fischer

S C H U Y L E R C O L F A X M O N U M E N T , I N D IA N A P O L IS The splendid W orld W ar memorial shows in the background

George Lucius Collie, Beloit ’81, long a dean in Beloit College is honored by the establishment during his lifetime of the George L. Collie Foundation of Beloit.

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H erbert W illiam Conn, Boston ’81. Professor of Biology in W es leyan University 1888-1917* A bronze tablet in his memory is in the Mu Epsilon chapter house at Middletown, Connecticut. Stanley Coulter, Hanover ’71, author of “ As Betas Now W e Meet/’ dean at Purdue University for many years, is honored by a laboratory build ing on the Purdue campus. John Ichabod Covington, Miami ’70. The holding corporation of the Yale chapter is named “The Covington Trust Association” in his memory. F ro s t Craft, De Pauw ’70. The baptismal font in Warren Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, Denver, Colorado, is a memorial to him. John Y ou n g Craft, Centre ’81, is buried in the cemetery in Danville, Kentucky, his tombstone, erected by Epsilon chapter members, displaying a representation of the fraternity badge.

Buell Spurgeon Crawford, Colorado College ’23, transferred his col lege work to the Western State College at Gunnison, Colorado, where he was injured in football practice. Blood poisoning developed causing his death on October 1, 1923, at Salida, Colorado. The Western State College dedicated its new athletic equipment as “ The Buell Crawford Memorial Field and Gymnasium.” Lan son Stage Curtis, Denison ’96. The alumni organization of the Denison chapter is named “ The Lanson Stage Curtis Memorial Association of Beta Theta Pi.” A beautiful Chickering grand piano in Curtis Hall at

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Granville, Ohio, the Denison chapter house, bears a silver plate recording that it was given in his memory by his mother, Mrs. Annette Jewell of Seneca Falls, New York. She also made the first large gift of money toward the first owned chapter house of Alpha Eta, and each year in his memory sends a check for books to the Denison University Library and a check to Center Star Lodge of Masons in Granville, Ohio.

T H E C U R T IS M E M O R IA L P IA N O A T D E N IS O N

BETA MOTHERS Though the cares have printed deep and bolden On my Mother’s brow the light of fading years, And the grey is creeping into hair once golden, Still she fosters no regret nor tears. For her heart is happy with the sunshine O f a life with all its sacrifices done; She will sit and smile and tell you in the gloaming O f the man that is her Beta Son. So here’s a song to every Beta Mother Who has given us of her great soul All the gifts possessed by not another, Though the tide of life and progress roll. I send a kiss afar across the prairie To bear to her a heart that’s folded in For the girl my father chose to marry, Who wears upon her breast my Beta Pin. C

h ester

nders

ee,

Oregon

'’ 1 6

5°6

BETA LORE

Jam es Ganson Daniels, Kansas ’13. Gold Star brother of the World W ar. Picture on the bookplate of the Alpha Nu Memorial Library.

Clemons H iram Davis, B\ethany ’96, established in the Bethany chap ter the C. H. Davis Loan Fund the initial gift being $500 and a like amount to be added each year. In 1928 the Fund contained $1,000. V inton Adam s D earing, Colgate ’ 17. Gold Star brother of the World W ar. His name is on a bronze tablet in the vestibule of the First Baptist Church of Hamilton, New York. George Stew art D ecker, Michigan ’63. on bronze tablet in Lambda chapter house.

A Civil W ar sacrifice.

Name

Edw ard A ndrew Deeds, Denison ’97, is honored at Denison Univer sity for the gift of a large tract of land for campus purposes, the athletic field being known as Deeds Field. A tablet in Curtis Hall, the Alpha Eta chapter house, records the generosity of Mrs. Edward A. Deeds in contri buting one-half the cost of its construction. An efficiency cup awarded an nually by vote of the Denison chapter to the member counted most valuable during the college year was presented by him and bears his name. A bronze tablet in the Engineers’ Club in Dayton, Ohio, bears tribute to his great public service in connection with the Miami flood control project. R obert H am ilton Devine, Bethany ’84, honored in memory by Beta Theta Pi because of a gift of $1,000 as a memorial to him made by William Dowler Turner, Bethany ’95, as one of “ The Ten” who established the Founders’ Fund. Joh n M ilton Dodson, Wisconsin ’80. For many years dean of Rush Medical College, he is honored by the John M. Dodson Lectureship estab lished by alumni and colleagues as a tribute to him. This provides for a

MEMORIALS TO MEMBERS

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lecture on medical education, medical history, or any other subject related to the advance of medical science. A self-perpetuating committee of five members is vested with the power of decision as to lecturer and subject. When this lectureship was established at the annual alumni banquet in Chicago, Dr. Dodson, who was the honor guest, was presented with a beau tiful gold watch in recognition of thirty years service to the college, now the medical school of the University of Chicago. Frederick Charles Dose, Pennsylvania State ’ 14. Gold Star brother of the W orld War. Name on bronze tablet in Alpha Upsilon chapter house. Andrew P atterson Duncan, Washington-J eff erson ’96, created a schol arship foundation bearing his name at Washington and Jefferson College through a gift of $1,200. Jam es Edw in Duncan, Washington-J efferson ’96, created a scholarship foundation bearing his name at Washington and Jefferson College through a gift of $1,200. John H olt Duncan, Miami ’40. “ O f ever honored memory.” Founder of Beta Theta Pi. “ In our hearts eternally we keep His faith and love.”

5°8

BETA LORE

Charles H enry Duncker, Jr., Washington ’14. Gold Star brother of the W orld War. Name on the bronze tablet placed by the university in memory of its hero dead. His parents and his widow presented the univer sity with the Charles H. Duncker, Jr., Hall of Commerce and Finance. Upon a beautiful tablet at whose base are three five-pointed stars and two conventionalized Beta roses is the inscription: “ T o the memory o f Charles H. Duncker, Jr., A.B., Washington Uni versity, 1914. Captain, Battery A , Three Hundred and Fortieth Field Artillery, Eighty-ninth Division, A .E .F., this building is dedicated. A brilliant student, a true friend, a loyal American. He gave his life in his country’s service, near Thiacourt, France, October 17, 1918, while commanding his battery.”

The Charles H. Duncker Post of the American Legion in St. Louis also commemorates this Beta hero. Jam es Raym ond Ebnother, Kansas ’ 13. Gold Star brother of the World W ar. Picture on the bookplate of the Alpha Nu Memorial Library.

EGG LESTO N H A LL

Joseph Dupuy E ggleston , Hampden-Sidney ’86. Eggleston Hall, a dormitory for girls at the Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute, Peters burg, Virginia, is named in his honor. The special reasons for this tribute were: “ (1) Dr. Eggleston through all of his official career in the public service of the State has manifested a keen and active interest in the develop ment of colored people. (2) When he was Superintendent of Public In struction he was a great source o f encouragement to the public school teach ers of the State in the interest of better health and economic conditions that were then in the process of development. (3) When he was Superinten

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509

dent of Schools of Prince Edward County he had built and equipped a model one room school for colored children. This, so far as we know, was the first model one room school built in the rural districts of the South. (4) As a member of the Board of Visitors of the Institute Dr. Eggleston was a most active and most outstanding factor in influencing the State Board of Education and the General Education Board to appropriate the money necessary for a dormitory for men and one for women on the campus.” H enry Baird Favill, Wisconsin ’80. In St. Luke’s Hospital, in Chi cago, is a laboratory in memory of Dr. Favill, once its superintendent. A gift of $150,000 was received, $120,000 being added to a fund of $2,500,000 for a new nineteen story building and $30,000 being designated for laboratory equipment. Under the terms of an agreement the hospital is to maintain perpetually a research laboratory with adequate facilities for “ the diligent and thorough prosecution of scientifically advanced and progressive work in the application and co-ordination of the most approved methods of medical and surgical diagnosis, and for scientific research.” The hospital agrees to expend at least $20,000 in addition to funds paid in by the trustees, for an nual operation of the laboratory, and to maintain fellowships or employ

TH E DOORW AY OF DUNCKER H ALL

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BETA LORE

technicians in research work at a cost of at least $5,000 annually. The in tent and purposes of this agreement are to provide for the perpetual maintenance on the highest practicable plane of a laboratory for diagnosis and related research, which shall serve primarily St. Luke’s Hospital but shall not be limited to the said hospital, its field of service to be as widespread as its income hereby provided for will permit. Dr. Favill was professor of medical jurisprudence in the University of Wisconsin 1889-1892. From 1894 until his death in 1916, he was professor of medicine in Rush Medical College, Chicago. His memory is fragrant in Chicago as this laboratory in stallation indicates. Dr. Favill also is recalled by the Henry Baird Favill Memorial Room in Le Phare de France, 14 Rue Daru, Paris, France. This is a hospital for blind ex-soldiers. Phare means lighthouse, and the work was organized partly through the Paris-Chicago Hospital Foundation. A volume of Dr. Favill’s papers and addresses, with the tributes paid to his memory by his friends was published by his son, Dr. John Favill, of Chicago.

T H E C H A R L E S H. D U N C K E R JR. H A L L Showing the memorial inscription under the bay window.

George H elgeson Fitch, K nox ’97, is commemorated by the chapter hall in the X i chapter house named in his honor and provided by the gifts of loving friends from “ Old Siwash.” W alter L e R o y F lory, Denison ’03. In the Denison chapter the Flory Trust Fund provides temporary loans to members upon notes signed by two individuals. Sam W alter Foss, Brown ’82. In the park at Candia, New Hamp shire, near the old homestead where he was born are two memorials. One is a granite monument, erected in honor of Mr. Foss. Underneath this monu

MEMORIALS TO MEMBERS ment lies a box containing five volumes of his poems. The other memorial is a maple tree, planted in honor of his son, Saxton C. Foss, who added luster to the family name when on October 8, 1918, in the Champagne sec tor, he volunteered, unassisted, to flank a German machine gun nest and fell mortally wounded. Another is a part of the working equipment of the Park Avenue Methodist Church of W est Somerville, Massachusetts, is “ a house by the side of the road,” where the social, recreational, and edu cational service of the church is localized. It was erected by contributors of over $100,000 made by friends of the poet who love the stanzas which gave name to the church house. In the city library of Somerville, is a bronze tablet in his memory. In resolutions passed by the Brown University Alumni Association it was said of F o ss: “ In him were found character of trans parent purity, vision which seemed to compass the universe, humor which while it laughed at men’s follies never left a sting in their hearts, felicity of diction which glorified the common speech, breadth of sympathy which was without bounds, heights of inspiration to contemplate which encouraged and heartened the listeners to his muse, and depths of faith and hope which were never rocked or shaken by doubt.”

THE HOUSE B Y THE SIDE OF THE ROAD Sam W

alter

Foss, Brown

’82

There are hermit souls that live withdrawn In the place of their self-content; There are souls, like stars, that dwell apart, In a fellowless firmament; There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths Where highways never ran— But let me live by the side of the road And be a friend to man. Let me live in a house by the side of the road, Where the race of men go by— The men who are good and the men who are bad, A s good and as bad as I. I would not sit in the scorner’s seat, Or hurl the cynic’s ban^&i;; Let me live in a house by the side of the road And be a friend to man. I see from my house by the side of the road By the side of the highway of life, The men who press with the ardor of hope, The men who are faint with the strife; But I turn not away from their smiles nor their tears— Both parts of an infinite plan— Let me live in my house by the side of the road And be a friend to man. I know there are brook-gladdened meadows ahead And mountains of wearisome height:

512

BETA LORE That the road passes on through the long afternoon And stretches away to the night. And still I rejoice when the travelers rejoice And weep with the strangers that moan. Nor live in my house by the side of the road Like a man who dwells alone. Let me live in my house by the side of the road Where the race of men go by— They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are strong, Wise, foolish— so am I. Then why should I sit in the scorner’s seat Or hurl the cynic's ban ? Let me live in my house by the side of the road And be a friend to man. — From Dreams in Homespun, published by Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. Used by special permission.

John H arold Fox, Dickinson ’ 14. Gold Star brother of the World War. Name on bronze tablet at Dickinson College dedicated to the 810 sons of Dickinson who served in the W orld W ar and in particular recognition of those who lost their lives. Reginald Stott Franchot, Michigan ’ 19. Gold Star brother of the W orld W ar. Name on bronze tablet in Lambda chapter house. His name also is on a beautiful Celtic cross nine feet high in the churchyard of St. M ark’s Pro-Cathedral in Grand Rapids, Michigan, erected to the memory of four young men and one young woman of the parish who lost their lives in the war. David Row land Francis, Washington ’70, No. 1 on the roll of Alpha Iota chapter, is recalled at Washington University by Francis Field, the athletic grounds, and by the Francis Gymnasium. On the gate to the field is a bronze tablet which records: “ This gate erected by the Louisiana Pur chase Exposition Company to commemorate the services of its president, David Rowland Francis.” In the entry way of the gymnasium another bronze tablet states: T H E F R A N C IS G Y M N A S IU M AND

T H E F R A N C IS F IE L D This building and the athletic arena named by the L O U I S I A N A P U R C H A S E E X P O S IT IO N C O M P A N Y In Honor of its President D A V ID R O W L A N D F R A N C IS were constructed for T H E O L Y M P IA N G A M E S O F 1904 and other athletic events held during the U N I V E R S A L E X P O S IT IO N Commemorating the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Acquisition of T H E L O U I S I A N A T E R R IT O R Y .

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Francis Park in St. Louis was presented to the city by Governor Francis. The Missouri Historical Society Library has a bronze bust of him. A street in St. Louis bears his name. Part of the campus of the University of Mis souri is called the Francis campus in his honor. His record of distinguished service as Governor of Missouri, 1889-1893; as United States Secretary of the Interior, 1896-1897; and as Ambassador to Russia in the World W ar period is well known. In his memory his sons contributed $500 to the Alpha Iota chapter house. Charles Ham ilton F ro st, Yale ’92. The library in the Phi Chi chapter house in New Haven, Connecticut, was given in his memory by his widow. He was one of the founders of the Yale chapter. Benjam in St. Jam es F ry , Ohio Wesleyan ’49, for twenty years editor of the Central Christian Advocate, is honored by the Dr. Fry Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church in St. Louis, Missouri. A first building erected in 1892 burned in 1905 and the present structure was dedicated in 1906. Dr. Fry, who was a great power in the northern Methodist circles in Mis souri, was one of the organizers of the church which bears his name. Charles Campbell Gard, Amherst ’ 17, Wisconsin ’ 17, is represented by a living memorial in the form of a splendid camp on the Great Miami river, four miles north of Hamilton, Ohio. The buildings have been con structed on a carefully laid plan, forming the letter “ U .” A t the open end of the letter “ U ” is the very beautifully wooded river front— at a point where the river is four hundred feet wide. On one side is the recreation hall and five lodge houses; on the other, the dining hall and the same num ber of houses. And at the closed end are found the hospital, director’s

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G A T E W A Y CA M PBELL GARD CAM P

lodge and guest house. The interior of this letter “ U ” is three hundred feet square and forms the major playground. In the central camp recreation hall a stone fireplace has been erected on one side of the building, and in this fireplace is the bronze camp memorial tablet bearing the inscription:

CAM P CAM PBELL GARD 1926 As a Loving Memorial to Our Son CH ARLES CAM PBELL GARD 1895-1921 This Camp is Given to the Y . M. C. A. of Hamilton, Ohio, by Mr. and Mrs. Homer Gard

W illiam E v e re tt Garvin, Westminster ’8o, is honored in memory at Westminster College, through the William Everett Garvin Memorial Schol arship, established by his sisters, Misses Leta and Gertrude Garvin. M arshall W a lte r Gill, University of Washington ’22, who was the de signer of the sylvan theater on the university campus at Seattle, is com memorated by a concrete bench erected there by Atelier, a campus dramatic organization, and by Beta Omega chapter, each contributing one-half of the needed amount. A plate bears the inscription, “ Erected in memory of Marshall W alter Gill, January 22, 1901-June 25, 1921. The Atelier.” Thom as Andrew Gillespie, II, Yale ’25, eldest son of Thomas H. and Harriet (W aring) Gillespie of South Orange, New Jersey, died on the Aldrich ranch near Cody, Wyoming, July 10, 1924, being one of four summer visitors there who died from poison, presumably from eating im-

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T H E G IL L B E N C H A T S E A T T L E

ported ripe olives. He was initiated by Phi Chi chapter on December 11, 1923, and at the time of his death, was looking forward with eager anticipaÂ tion to his Senior year at Yale. The billiard room in the Phi Chi chapter house was given in his memory by his father.

T H E G IL L E S P IE M E M O R IA L IN T H E Y A L E H O U S E

Joseph E llio tt Gilpin, Johns Hopkins â&#x20AC;&#x2122;89. An attractive bronze tablet to his memory is placed upon the wall in the corridor of the chemistry building at Johns Hopkins University. The tablet bears the arms of Beta Theta Pi and the arms of the university and reads:

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H illary A sbury Gobin, Pauw ’70. The religious education unit foundation at De Pauw University bears his name. He was connected with the faculty from 1880 until his death when he was known as “ The Grand Old Man of De Pauw.” He was president of the university from 1895 to 1903. Joh n Ed w ard Good, Kenyon ’84, presented the city of Akron, Ohio, with an 180-acre farm, that it might have a fine municipal golf course. As the donor grew up in Akron and has seen and had a part in its remarkable development the significance o f , the notable benefaction is all the greater. During the long years of the future the name of Good will be committed to memory and cherished by Betas as one of “ The Ten” who established the Founders’ Fund by individual gifts of $1,000. A t the same time his home town people will bless him for the generous gift of the “J. Edward Good Park.”

Jam es W o lco tt Gooding, Dickinson ’ 14. Gold Star brother of the W orld War. Name on the bronze tablet at Dickinson College, placed in memory of the W orld W ar heroes.

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W illiam Lam bert Gooding, Dickinson ’74, a charter member of Alpha Sigma chapter, is honored by the Gooding gateway at Dickinson. The gate is situated on the east side of the college campus in close proximity to Old East dormitory. It was given by the class of 1905 to commemorate William Lambert Gooding, who was a professor of philosophy at Dickinson from 1898 until his death in 1916.

THE

G O O D IN G

GATEW AY

D IC K IN S O N

John Brow n Gordon, Georgia ’52, governor of Georgia, 1886-1890; United States Senator, 1873-1879 and 1890-1896. A n heroic statue in the State House grounds at Atlanta. Thom as Boston Gordon, Founder of Beta Theta Pi.

Miami ’40.

“ O f ever honored memory.”

“ In our hearts eternally we keep His faith and love.” Pierre Cleveland Grace, Washington ’09, president of the chapter while in college, who died in 1911, is represented in a memorial contribution of $500 made to the Alpha Iota chapter house. W illiam Lucius Graves, Ohio State ’93, honored at his Alma Mater as the “ professor plus,” has a tree on the campus named for him, “ the Billy Graves tree.” Originally called “ Idler’s tree” because of popular daily articles for the college paper, The Lantern, under the nom de plume, “ The Idler,” it is now known by the personal designation. John H anna Gray, Hanover ’56, died while an undergraduate and was buried on the Hanover College campus. A popular subscription to erect

BETA LORE a monument was taken among the students, his fellow Betas being active on the committee. They had the triangular seal of the chapter and some Greek words placed upon the stone. This so angered some of the other students that they threatened to destroy the monument. The Betas, in de tachments, guarded the memorial for some weeks until the feeling died down. It was this episode which disclosed the existence of Beta Theta Pi at Hanover, the chapter having been sub rosa. The father of Gray had been unable to attend his son’s* funeral owing to high water on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. The next spring he came from the South to Hanover to visit his son’s grave. He was a Presbyterian clergyman, a graduate of Miami University in 1826, who had been working with smaller churches on smaller pay. , He was greatly touched when he learned how the Hanover students and notably the Betas had done everything possible for his boy. He expressed his belief in a fraternity which showed itself in such a sincere way. He indicated his regret that it had not been his lot to have such a tie in his own life. He wished that he also belonged to Beta Theta Pi. In those days before strict rules were laid down it was no uncommon thing to admit members rather loosely. And so, while John Hanna Gray’s name is found No. 13 on the Hanover list, that of Daniel L. Gray, his father, is No. 21. The catalogue gives but little about him. “ Died 1862” is the record. The place and the time may not be known, but we can hope that long ago his spirit held fraternal communion with that of the son whose earthly remains were laid away on the banks of the beautiful Ohio more than half a century ago. F ran k W akeley Gunsaulus, Ohio Wesleyan ’75. There are oil paint ings of him in the library of Ohio Wesleyan, in the University of Chicago, and also in the A rt Institute of Chicago where a memorial room bears his name and special collections of art objects made by him are cherished. A Gunsaulus memorial volume was published soon after his death, a symposium of appreciations by a number of close friends. L u th e r Alfred H agar, Union ’ 14. Gold Star brother of the World W ar. Name on bronze tablet in Nu chapter. Daniel Galer H ag arty , Toronto ’ 16. Gold Star brother of the World War. Name on bronze memorial tablet in the Theta Zeta chapter house. Thom as Dunbar H alliday, Ohio Wesleyan ’ 19. Gold Star brother of the W orld War. A bronze tablet to his memory is in the Theta chapter house.

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Robert Gordon H am ilton, Toronto ’ 15. Gold Star brother of the World War. Name on bronze memorial tablet in the Theta Zeta chapter house. Thom as Harbine, Miami ’42, is recalled by the town of Harbine, Jef ferson County, Nebraska, named for him and by the Harbine National Bank in Fairbury, Nebraska, which he founded. Charles H enry H ardin, Founder of Beta Theta Pi.

Miami ’41.

“ O f ever honored memory.”

“ In our hearts eternally we keep, His faith and love.” Hardin College at Mexico, Missouri, was founded by him. governor of Missouri, 1875-1877.

He was

Jam es H arlan, De Pauw ’45. United States Secretary of the Interior, 1865-1866; United States Senator from Iowa, 1855-1865 and 1867-1873. His bust is in statuary hall in the Capitol at Washington and his name has large use among American geographical place names of counties and towns. It is inscribed upon the state house at Lincoln, Nebraska, among the counties of the state. 8 Samuel J. H arris, Dickinson ’ 19. Gold Star brother of the World War. Name on bronze tablet in Dickinson College to the honor of 810 of Dickinson's sons in the World W ar and particularly to the memory of the heroic dead. Oliver Gibson H art, Washington-J eff erson ’98, and John Britton Hart, Washington-J eff erson ’01, the former dying in 1898 and the latter in 1907, are remembered through a scholarship foundation at Washington and Jefferson College established by eight members of Gamma chapter of Beta Theta Pi who contributed $2,500 for the purpose. Jam es Cuthbert H artney, Toronto ’07. Gold Star brother of the W orld War. Name on bronze memorial tablet in the Theta Zeta chapter house. A nton Frederick H aus, Wesleyan ’ 12. Gold Star brother of the World W ar. Picture upon a memorial mantel in the Mu Epsilon chapter house. W illiam H enry Ross H earne, Washington-J eff erson ’74, established at Washington and Jefferson College the William H. Hearne scholarship foun dation by a gift of $1,200. A rthur L u th er Hedrick, Yale ’08. Gold Star brother of the World War. The Twenty-seventh Street viaduct in Kansas City, Missouri, is named for him. It extends from Paseo to Highland Avenue, two full city blocks. It is the width of Twenty-seventh Street, sixty feet, and crosses over

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Vine Street which lies between Paseo and Highland. There is a main arch of ioo feet over Vine Street, and three smaller flanking arches on either side. It is all of concrete over steel and an attractive structure. There are six ornamental piers on either side, each supporting a light. A bronze tablet bears the inscription: “This tablet is erected by the Board of Park Commissioners of Kansas City in memory of C A P T A I N A R L Y L U T H E R H E D R IC K One Hundred Tenth Engineers Designer of this structure, which was his last important work before going overseas. H e died in Brest, France, on the sixth day of March, 1919, and was posthumously awarded the distinguished service cross for extraordinary bravery in the battle of the Argonne Forest.”

C arey W aylan d H enderson, Indiana ’70, the first mayor of Blooming ton, Indiana, under its second incorporation in 1876, is recalled by Hen derson Street in that city. Charles Richm ond H enderson, Chicago ’70. One of the grammar schools in Chicago is named for him. An oil painting hangs in the Uni versity of Chicago where, for years, he was professor and university chap lain. The residuary estate of his widow was left to the university for a memorial to him. A tablet bearing a tribute to him is in the university chapel. R obert Staufer H eizer, Kansas ’ 11. Gold Star brother of the World War. Picture on the bookplate of the Alpha Nu Memorial Library.

H E P B U R N H A L L A T M IA M I

A ndrew D ousa Hepburn, Washington-J eff erson ’51, who was profes sor of logic and rhetoric at Miami University from 18 6 8 to 1873* president

M EMORIALS TO MEMBERS

52 i

from 1871 to 1873, and professor of English language and literature and dean of the college of liberal arts from 1885 to 1908, is honored at Miami by Hepburn Hall, a dormitory for women. On the wall of the university library there is a tablet in his memory. It bears a relief of his features. It is said of him, “ Gentleman, Scholar, Teacher, Friend.” There is also the inscription, “ Idealist— He lived his standards,” and “ Critic— His power abides wherever his students speak.” W ilm er E d g a r H err, Wesleyan ’ 15. Gold Star brother of the World War. Picture upon a memorial mantel in the Mu Epsilon chapter house. Joh n W illiam son H erron, Miami ’45, for many years president of the Board of Trustees of Miami University, is recalled by a portrait hanging in the old chapel at Miami, not far from the tablet commemorating the found ing of Beta Theta Pi. The gymnasium at Miami bears his name.

T H E H E R R O N G Y M N A S IU M A T M IA M I

W illiam Hood, Dartmouth ’67, who died in San Francisco, California, Thursday, August 26, 1926, was a resident of California for sixty years, nearly all spent in the service of the Southern Pacific railway by which he was retired on May 3, 1921, the fifty-fourth anniversary of the day he was hired by the company as an axeman. He was called upon to solve the most difficult engineering problems and to his genius may be attributed many of the W est’s outstanding achievements in railroad construction. He built the famous Tehachapi loop; the Lucin cutoff, a twenty-seven-mile causeway and trestle crossing the Great Salt Lake; the “ S ” line of the Siskiyous, which crosses the Sacramento river eighteen times and passes through sixteen tun nels, one of them 3,000 feet lon g; and the line which cuts through the Carriso gorge to unite the Imperial Valley with San Diego. Had Mr. Harriman lived, Mr. Hood would have built through the Sierras on the Central Pacific line the longest railroad tunnel in the w orld; but Harriman’s untimely death found no leader of sufficient vision to utilize to its full Hood’s extraordinary engineering skill. B ruce H ow ard, California ’19. Gold Star brother of the W orld War. Name on memorial plate in Omega chapter house.

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Joh n T u rn er H ow ard, Toronto ’13. Gold Star brother of the World W ar. Name on bronze memorial tablet in the Theta Zeta chapter house. WM

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T hom as Corwin Iliff, Ohio ’yo, is held in memory by the Iliff School of Theology connected with Denver University.

T H E IR V IN G Y M N A S IU M A T B E T H A N Y

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Charles H enry Irvin, Bethany ’go, and Benjamin William Irvin, Bethany ’06, built the Irvin gymnasium for Bethany College, to which they have been generous contributors in other directions. Byron Jackson, Jr., California ’ 16. Gold Star brother of the World W ar. Name on memorial plate in Omega chapter house. Fran k Phelps Johnson, Indiana ’07, is recalled at Indiana by seven memorial windows in the front of the chapter house which were provided for by his parents. Stephen Jam es K eister, Pennsylvania State ’14. Gold Star brother of the World War. Name on bronze tablet in Alpha Upsilon chapter house. Edw in Russell Kingsland, Colorado ’ 14- Gold Star brother of the World War. Name on bronze memorial tablet in the Beta Tau chapter house presented by Betas of the class of 1926 when freshmen. Jam es E d g ar Kinnison, Ohio ’80, long superintendent of schools in Jackson, Ohio, is honored in the Kinnison High School, named for him. W a lte r Gill K irkpatrick, Vanderbilt ’86, who was drowned in the Mis sissippi River in 1925, is commemorated by a bronze tablet in the entrance to the chapel of the University of Mississippi, where he was professor of municipal engineering from 1923 to 1925.

WALTER GILL KIRKPATR , PROFESSOR OF HUNICIPAL ENGINES

DONALD FRASER McLE 1673-1927

PROFESSOR OF MUNICIPAL ENGINEER

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Daniel Kirkwood, Indiana ’49. Professor of mathematics at Indiana University for many years. Kirkwood Hall, a university class building at Bloomington, erected in 1894; Kirkwood Observatory, erected in 1900, and Kirkwood Avenue in Bloomington perpetuate his memory.

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K IR K W O O D

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IN D IA N A

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Alonzo Asheal Klingensm ith, De Pauw ’ 17. Gold Star brother of the World War. His grave in Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana, has a marker placed in 1923 by the De Pauw chapter of Beta Theta Pi. A rthur Gerald Knight, Toronto ’ 18. Gold Star brother of the World W ar, is commemorated by an unusually attractive tablet in St. Paul’s church in Toronto, Ontario. He was born in Bedford, England, in July, 1895. He prepared for the University of Toronto at Upper Canada College and en tered the Chemical Engineering course in 1913. He was initiated into Theta Zeta chapter on December 17, 1914. He enlisted in the Royal F ly ing Corps in 1915. In November, 1916, he won the Military Cross for conspicuous skill and gallantry, and a month later was awarded the Dis tinguished Service Order for leading four machines against eighteen Ger man planes, bringing down five and dispersing the others. He was also promoted to the rank of Captain. A t that time he was known as Canada’s most distinguished aviator. On December 20, 1916, he was reported missing, confirmation of his death coming later. When last seen he was engaged with superior numbers of the enemy. Upon the tablet the name, decoration, and unit are printed in large block capitals and the inscription in old Eng lish, the details of his death at the bottom are printed in small block capi tals. The tablet is three feet long by two and one-half feet high and is of black and white marble with a brass plate bearing the inscription super imposed. A t the top of the inscription is the crest of the Royal Flying Corps— just a pair of wings with R.F.C. in the center and a scroll under neath. The inscription on the tablet reads:

★ ★ ★ C A P T . A . G E R A L D K N IG H T , D.S.O., M.C. Royal F lying Corps whom this tablet commemorates, was numbered among those who, at the call of K in g and Country, left all that was dear to them, endured hardness, faced danger, and finally passed out of sight of men by the path of duty and self-sacrifice, giving up their own lives that others might live in free dom. Let those that come after see that their names be not forgotten and their sacrifice has not been in vain. Killed in Action at Douai, France, Dec. 20, 1916 Aged Twenty-one years Erected by His Friends.

★ ★ ★ Captain Knight’s name is also upon the bronze memorial tablet in the Theta Zeta chapter house. W illiam Alonzo K notts, Kenyon ’92, who died in 1926, is honored by a public school in Kansas City, Missouri, named in his memory. John Reily K nox, Miami ’39. “ O f ever honored memory.” A Foun der of Beta Theta Pi. His relief is on the Founders’ Memorial Tablet in the old chapel at Miami University. “ In our hearts eternally we keep His faith and love.”

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Jam es Reed Lan e, Iowa n , honored as one of “The Ten” who es tablished the Founders’ Fund of Beta Theta Pi by individual gifts of $1,000. Fran k M orrill L a y , Amherst ’93. In the Amherst chapter the income from the Frank M. Lay Trust Fund provides three prizes of $50, $30 and $20 respectively to the three Freshmen attaining the highest yearly scholastic averages above the chapter average. George L e F e v re , Johns Hopkins ’91. The Biology Laboratory at the University of Missouri is named in his honor. John Charles L ee, Illinois ’ 13. Gold Star brother of the World War. Honored by a tree planted April 23, 1920, on the University of Illinois campus bearing his name and class on a bronze plate and by a column in the memorial stadium in Champaign. Alonzo Linn, Washington-Jefferson ’49. A professorship of History and Political Science at Washington and Jefferson College was endowed in his memory by alumni of the institution who contributed $47,570 for that purpose. David Linton, Miami ’39. “ O f ever honored memory.” A Founder of Beta Theta Pi. “ In our hearts eternally we keep His faith and love.” W ill iam Ricords L o ck h art, Washington-Jefferson ’83, is commem orated at Washington and Jefferson College by the William R. Lockhart Scholarship Foundation of $1,200, given by James L. and Mary H. Lock hart. H arold E d g ar Loud, Michigan ’ 18. Gold Star brother of the World W ar. Name on bronze tablet in Lambda chapter house. Kenneth M acLeish, Yale ’18. Gold Star brother of the World War. His name is on the memorial tablet in the Yale chapter house and on a tablet placed by his classmates in one of the archways of the Harkness Quadrangle at Yale. A vessel of the United States Navy was named in his honor. On Sunday, April 8, 1923, the First Baptist Church of Evanston, Illinois, dedicated a $200,000 church house, adjoining its auditorium. The new building is of Bedford stone, and has, as its special adornment, a square tower containing a hall named after and in memory of Lieutenant MacLeish, who was shot in Belgium while serving as an aviator. The building affords facilities for all forms of educational, religious, and social work carried on by the men’s forum, ladies’ aid, young people’s societies, and Sunday School. Charles W illiam M cConaughey, California ’01. Gold Star brother of the W orld W ar. Name on memorial plate in Omega chapter house. Em lin M cClain, Iowa ’71, long connected with the law school of the State University of Iowa, is recalled through “ The McClain Inn,” the name of the Iowa chapter of the Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity. Jam es R ogers M cConnell, Virginia ’ 11. Gold Star brother oi the World W ar. Statue of “ The Aviator” by Gutzen Borglum on the University of Virginia campus. Statue in the court-house yard in his home county in North Carolina.

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M C I L W A IN E H A L L Hampden-Sidney College, Virginia, named in honor of President Richard Me Ilwaine.

R ichard M cllw aine, Hampden-Sidney ’53. President of HampdenSidney College, 1883-1904. “ Mcllwaine H all” on the Hampden-Sidney campus is named for him. H ugh M cK ee, United States Naval Academy ’63, honored at Anna polis by a tablet testifying to his heroism in the assault on Corean forts at the mouth of the Seoul River, June 11, 1871, when he lost his life. Clinton Rice Madison, California ’20. Gold Star brother of the World W ar. Name on memorial plate in Omega chapter house. M aurice Edw ard Malone, Toronto ’ 17. Gold Star brother of the World War. Name on memorial bronze tablet in the Theta Zeta chapter house. A bronze tablet to his memory was placed Sunday, November 11, 1917, at 11 :oo a . m . in St. Paul’s church in Toronto. It is directly opposite the tribute to Arthur Gerald Knight, Toronto ’ 18. It reads: ★ ★ ★ “ In loving memory of L IE U T E N A N T M A U R IC E E D W A R D M A L O N E Forty-eighth Highlanders Fifteenth Battalion, First Canadian Expeditionary Force who was killed in action at the battle o f Zillebecke in Flanders while gallantly leading his men. June 3, 1916 A ged twenty-one years and two months He was the youngest son of E. T. and Am y Malone “ Never mind me; carry on”— his last words. “ Quit you like m en : be strong.”

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When the Archbishop of Y ork visited Boston during the World War, he was the main speaker at a remarkable gathering in Faneuil Hall, the Ameri can “ Cradle of Liberty.” There was an audience which filled every part of the historic room, even to the stairways and the narrow balconies. The “ pictured walls” never witnessed such a sight, in all their long years of experience with meetings of unusual type. The second highest officer of the Church of England, a Lord of Britain, was pleading the cause of world democracy, where once the walls rang with denunciations of the tyranny of George the Third. He sensed the atmosphere, spoke as if inspired, and thrilled the tensely interested audience with a patriotic ardor when he greeted them as “ fellow citizens of the great fellowship of free nations,” and de

clared his gratification at being able to deliver his message to Americans in such a sacred structure. Reaching his climax, he pictured life in the trenches and said, “ The spirit of our boys is best typified by the words of a gallant young officer who fell mortally wounded as he was leading his troops in an attack. Some turned back to help him, and his last words were, ‘Never mind m e: carry on.’ ” The saying will liv e; for it is of the spirit. Andrew B en nett M artin, Cumberland ’58, a trustee of Cumberland University from 1866 to his death, is commemorated by a life size oil paint ing in the law school over which he was dean for more than forty years. Samuel T a y lo r M arshall, Miami ’40. “ O f ever honored memory.” Founder of Beta Theta Pi. “ In our hearts eternally we keep His faith and love.”

MEMORIALS TO MEMBERS

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L O S A N G E L E S W A R M E M O R IA L Presented to St. John’s Episcopal Church by the Southern California Alumni Association. Unveiled and blessed by the Rector, Rev. George Davidson, Kenyon ’02, June 7, 1925. It is a representation o f “ The Presentation of Christ in the Temple.”

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R obert F o rre st Midkiff, K nox ’20, who was killed in an airplane ac cident on June 18, 1920, is recalled by a silver loving cup presented in his memory to the Knox chapter by Frank Jay Welch, K nox ’22. Each year this cup will have engraved upon it the name of the freshman in the chapter who attains the highest scholastic standing. H erb ert L a ss Miller, K nox ’13. Gold Star brother of the World War. An American Legion Post in New York is named in honor of Lieutenant Herbert L. Miller, who was lost on the night of September 16, 1918, in the Aisne-Vesle sector, in an attack on Revillon. Reuben W eb ster Millsaps, De Pauw ’54, was the founder of Millsaps College, Jackson, Mississippi. C raig Schofield Mitchell, Pennsylvania ’04. A bronze tablet in the Phi chapter house dedicates a room to his memory.

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Thom as Jam es Monilaw, Chicago ’24, who died with several of his Beta friends in an automobile accident, has his name attached to a club house connected with a Wisconsin summer camp for boys. David H astings M oore, Ohio ’60. Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal church. He is commemorated by an oil painting in Denver University, of which he was president. Donald W hitcom be M orrison, Toronto ’ ig. Gold Star brother of the World War. Name on bronze memorial tablet in the Theta Zeta chapter house. D w ight W h itn ey M orrow , Amherst ’95, United States Ambassador to M exico in 1928, gave to Amherst College the Morrow Dormitory. Con nected with the building is an excellent restaurant known as the Morrow Cafeteria. Charles Nelson M ortensen, Williams ’ 13. He was a member of the Psi Omega local which became the Williams chapter of Beta Theta Pi on M ay 16, 1914, his name being placed on the chapter roll although he had died of scarlet fever on October 13, 1913. In 1922 his family presented the Zeta chapter with $3,000 to establish the Charles Nelson Mortensen Memorial Library. A bronze memorial plaque is attached to the fireplace.

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MEMORIALS TO MEMBERS

;— P ictu re by K a rl W . Fischer, Indiana ’ 25

O L IV E R P. M O R T O N S T A T U E In front of the State Capital, Indianapolis.

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O liver P erry Morton, Miami ’47. Civil W ar Governor of Indiana, 1861-1867; United States Senator, 1867-1877; member of the Electoral Commission, 1877. Has wide-spread recognition in American geography through place names of counties, townships, towns, and streets. His bust

— P ictu re by K a rl W . Fischer

is in Statuary Hall in the national capitol. In Indianapolis there is an heroic monument in the State House grounds, erected in 1890, and another on the “ Circle.” His tombstone in the cemetery carries his bust upon it. A public school in Indianapolis bears his name. “ Camp Morton,” famous Con-

— P icture b y K a rl W.- Fischer

O LIV ER P. MORTON Statue on the great monument on “The Circle” in Indianapolis, Indiana.

federate prison camp in Indianapolis during the Civil W ar was named for him, its commandant being. Colonel Richard Owen, De Pauw ’57. A fter the war it was called Morton Place for many years. On June 16, 1926, a heroic statue of Morton was unveiled with impressive ceremonies in the Vicksburg national military park. It marks the part played by Hoosier

MEMORIALS TO MEMBERS

533

soldiers in the memorable siege of Vicksburg. The monument is a beau tiful statue twelve and a half feet high and stands in the Indiana circle on Baldwin’s ferry road, where the Indiana troops made several desperate charges on the Confederate entrenchments. The governor of Indiana, who made the address, said: “ Morton typified the civil war spirit in Indiana more than any other one man and it was peculiarly fitting that he should have been selected to stand guard throughout the ages over the spot made sacred by the blood of Indiana’s soldiers.” The Oliver P. Morton chapter of the Daughters of the Union is in Indianapolis. The Oliver P. Morton Memorial Association holds an annual reunion and lays a wreath on his statue each year. Morton was largely instrumental in the establishment of the De Pauw, Indiana, and Wabash chapters of Beta Theta Pi.

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C A L IF O R N IA W A R M E M O R IA L

534

BETA LORE

Stratford L ee M orton, Washington ’ 10, honored by Beta Theta Pi as one of The Ten, who established the Founders’ Fund by individual gifts of $1,000. < Leland Stanford M ugg, Case ’ 18. Gold Star brother of the World W ar. Name is on a W orld W ar Memorial Scholarship Cup awarded an nually by Lambda Kappa chapter to a freshman. John Slemmons M orris, Hanover. ’04, is buried in the cemetery in in Corydon, Indiana, where a stone marker indicates his membership in the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.

Albinus N ance, Knox ’70. Governor of Nebraska, 1879-1883. A county in Nebraska is named for him, and the name is emblazoned on the outer wall of the State House at Lincoln. John Strong N ew berry, Western Reserve ’46, college and Beta con temporary of John Stoughton Newberry, Michigan ’47, was the second state geologist of Ohio, serving from 1869 to 1878. A t the time he was profes sor of geology and natural history in Columbia University, being the first professor of geology in that institution. Like his Michigan namesake, he was an active Beta in college days when strong men guided the destinies of our then young and struggling fraternity. His portrait was presented to Ohio State University by Mr. William B. Newberry, of Cleveland, Ohio. Brother Newberry, who was initiated October 8, 1843, died in New York in 1892 ; death ending a twenty-three year term as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. H a rry Reid Nicholson, Toronto ’ 17. Gold Star brother of the World War. Name on bronze memorial in the Theta Zeta chapter house. John W illock Noble, Miami ’50. United States Secretary of the In terior, 1889-1893. His Beta Theta Pi badge willed by him to the St. Louis Beta Theta Pi alumni, is handed down each year to the newly elected presi dent. A street in St. Louis is named for him. A lbert Nye, Michigan ’62. A Civil W ar sacrifice. tablet in Lambda chapter house.

Name on bronze

MEMORIALS TO MEMBERS

PATTERSON MEMORIAL AT DAYTON

535

536

BETA LORE

R ichard Owen, De Pauw ’57. Professor of natural science at In diana University, 1864-1879, has his memory honored by Owen Hall, a science building at Indiana, built 1884, rebuilt 1911; by a portrait hung there; and by a bust in the state capitol at Indianapolis given by former Confederate prisoners of war at Camp Morton in testimony to him and un veiled June 9, 1913. F ra n k S tu art P atterson , Yale ’ 18. Gold Star brother of the World W ar has his name upon the memorial tablet in the Yale chapter house and also upon a slab to World W ar heroes placed by the class of 1918 in the east side of the vaulted archway of the Harkness Quadrangle at Yale. Joh n H enry P atterson , Miami ’67, founder of the National Cash Register Company and donor to Dayton, Ohio, of the Hills and Dales Park, is honored in that city by an elaborate memorial monument. A rchibald W oods Pauli, Washington-Jefferson ’65, is honored by a scholarship foundation of $1,200 at Washington and Jefferson College, given in his memory by A. W . Pauli, Jr. H iram Mills Perkins, Ohio Wesleyan ’57, by contribution of his life savings and gains from investments established at Ohio Wesleyan Uni versity an observatory of the first rank, whose entire equipment is of Ameri can manufacture. W arney and Swasey, of Cleveland, Ohio, provided the telescope mounting and the optical glass was produced by the United States Bureau of Standards. The Observatory whose attractive building is well constructed is located on high ground just south of Delaware on the main highway to Columbus.

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537

P E R K IN S O B S E R V A T O R Y A t Ohio W esleyan University, Delaware, Ohio.

A lexander W h ite Pitzer, Hampden-Sidney ’54, one of the most dis tinguished of the ministers of the Southern Presbyterian church, is com memorated by a bronze tablet in the vestibule of the Central Presbyterian church in Washington, D.C., of which he was the founder and the pastor from 1868 to 1906, and the pastor-emeritus from 1906 until his death, July 22, 1927.

E N T R A N C E , P E R K IN S O B S E R V A T O R Y

George Creath Rankin, Monmouth '72., once General Secretary of Beta Theta Pi, is recalled by a bronze tablet placed in the armory of the Illinois National Guard at Monmouth, Illinois. Colonel Rankin had an un usually large acquaintance, his circle of friends including some of the most influential of the leaders of the nation. It was a happy thought to do him honor in his home town where he was known and loved by all.

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BETA LORE

M E M O R IA L T O F O R M E R G E N E R A L S E C R E T A R Y G E O R G E C. R A N K IN

B u rton Ralph Reynolds, Colorado ’ 19. Gold Star brother of the W orld W ar. Name on bronze tablet in the Beta Tau chapter house, pre-. sented by the. freshmen of the class of 1926 as a delegation gift to the chapter. Alonzo B lair Richardson, Ohio ’72, is kept in memory by the Richard son group of buildings of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. He had two brothers at Ohio University among the Betas, Andrew and A lex ander. His son is William W . Richardson, Ohio State ’99, and his grand son is Alonzo Blair Richardson, Amherst ’31. Fred erick Frelinghuysen Rose, Indiana ’75, who, at the time of his death in 1919 was president of the Board of Trustees of Indiana University, presented to the university in 1908 the Wellhouse, a white limestone struc ture with stained-glass skylights. The stone portals were the doors of the old college building before removal from an earlier campus to the present site. The floor plan inside of the well house is eight-sided, and comparable with the shape of the Beta badge. For this reason and the Beta connection with tht donor, all Beta serenades at Bloomington end within this building with the tune of “ The Loving Cup.” Michael Clarkson Ryan, Miami ’39. “ O f ever hon ored memory.” A founder of Beta Theta Pi.

“ In our hearts eternally we keep His faith a:nd love.”

MEMORIALS TO MEMBERS

539

Rollin D. Salisbury, Beloit ’81, for some years head of the depart ments of geology and geography in the University of Chicago, has his name and helpful influence perpetuated in the institution through the “ Rollin D. Salisbury Memorial Fund.” This fund is actively to “ foster through the indefinite future the development of the earth sciences to which Professor Salisbury gave his life’s work. The income from this fund of $15,000 may be devoted to several classes of projects: (a) field research expeditions; (b) office and laboratory researches; (c) fellowship grants to graduate stu dents of special promise; (d) aid in the publication of research results when such publication cannot be otherwise arranged; (e) other projects that come appropriately under the caption of promotion of research.” Dr. Salisbury’s former faculty colleagues in the two departments subscribed $5,000 toward the new foundation. On February 8, 1917, a portrait of him, painted by Ralph Clarkson, was presented to the university. T iel Per Lee Sanford, Minnesota ’21, who was killed in an automobile accident, is recalled in the Minnesota chapter house by a bronze tablet placed in his honor and by the Tiel Sanford Memorial Fund of $1000 given by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. William A. Sanford o f Cherokee, Iowa. The annual income of this fund is awarded annually by vote of the chapter to the member considered to have done the most for Beta Theta Pi. M ortimer Leo Schiff, Amherst ’96, Honored by Betas everywhere as one of “ The Ten” who established the Founders Fund of Beta Theta Pi. Martin H enry Schlieper, Washington ’ 18. Gold Star brother of the World W ar. Name on the Washington University Memorial Tablet, unveiled June 6, 1922.

540

BETA LORE

Clarence W illiam Schnelle, Washington ’ 12. Gold Star brother of the W orld War. Name on the Washington University Memorial Tablet, un veiled June 6, 1922. Charles Ed w ard Schw eyer, Amherst ’91, honored in Beta Theta Pi through a gift of $1,000 in his memory made by John Edward Good, Ken yon ’84, to establish the Founders’ Fund. Shelby B rew er Schurtz, Michigan ’08. Honored by Lambda chapter members for a notable volume, “ Beta Theta Pi at Michigan, 1845-1928,” containing unusually valuable material bearing upon the history of the uni versity and upon the fraternity life therein. S tew art Scott, Syracuse ’94, died in Montana in 1897, to which state he went in search of health. His body was buried in a steel box. This was placed in a stone-lined vault and over the vault a couch-like monument of unpolished gray stone was erected, the middle part of the couch being filled with small white pebbles. The monument is in the burying ground in Clay, New York.

Joh n Blasdel Shapleigh, Washington ’78, long a leading physician and professor of otology in St. Louis, has in his memory the Shapleigh Audi torium attached to the St. Louis Medical Society building. Its entrance is from the main corridor of this building. Over bronze doors is an inscrip tion “ To the Memory of Dr. John B. Shapleigh.” For this auditorium seating over one thousand the Shapleigh family contributed $45,000 toward the amount expended by the society. The family also has given Washing ton University $50,000 to endow a ward in the new hospital for eye, ear, nose and throat, in perpetual memory of his distinguished service as pro fessor in that field of medicine.

MEMORIALS TO MEMBERS

S4i

F ran cis W ayland Shepardson, Denison ’82. A bronze tablet in his honor is placed in Curtis Hall, the Denison chapter house. His name is among “ The Ten” of the Founders’ Fund of Beta Theta Pi, the fraternity making a contribution of $1,000 in his honor. Raym ond H ough Sherm an, California ’95. Gold Star brother of the World War. Name on memorial plate in Omega chapter house. W illiam Preston Shuler, Kansas State ’ 10, is remembered in the Iowa State chapter by the Shuler Memorial Scholarship Cup. It was presented by Marion Ashton Smith, Kansas State ’22. Dr. Shuler entered Iowa State College in the fall of 1922 for graduate work in bacteriology and veterinary pathology. For nearly a year he lived in the Tau Sigma chapter house, forming many friendships and endearing himself to all. A nervous break down combined with injuries received in the World W ar resulted in his untimely death on Christmas Eve, 1923. The memorial cup is for encourag ing scholarship among the chapter’s pledges. Ed w ard Sigerfoos, Ohio State ’91, Major General in the United States Army, is held in honored memory as the highest ranking officer in the serv ice to lose his life in the World War.

A D O O R W A Y O F S IM S H A L L , SYRACU SE

Charles N. Sims, De Pauw ’59, was chancellor of Syracuse Univer sity from 1881 to 1893. The only men’s dormitory at Syracuse, Sims

542

BETA LORE

Hall, is named in his honor. It contains 160 rooms and accommodates 260 students. Erected in 1907, it was then counted one of the finest college dormitories in America. Dr. Sims took a keen interest in Beta Epsilon chap ter which was granted its charter during his presidency. A lbert Carnahan Simonds, California ’ 16. Gold Star brother of the World War. Name on memorial plate in Omega chapter house.

SIM S H A L L , S Y R A C U S E

Joseph Donaldson Simpson, Toronto ’ 12. Gold Star brother of the W orld W ar. Name on bronze memorial tablet in the Theta Zeta chapter house. E rn e st A lroy Simpson, Toronto ’15. Gold Star brother of the World War. Name on bronze memorial tablet in the Theta Zeta chapter house. John R oy Simpson, Miami ’99, honored by Beta Theta Pi as one of “ The Ten” who by individual contributions of $1,000 established the Foun ders’ Fund. Jam es George Smith, Miami ’40. “ O f ever honored memory.” Founder of Beta Theta Pi. “ In our hearts eternally we keep His faith and love.”

MEMORIALS TO MEMBERS

543

Cedric Alan Smith, Michigan rig. Gold Star brother of the World War. Name on bronze tablet in Lambda chapter house. Fran k W oolford Sneed, Westminster ’85, twice pastor of the Wash ington and Compton Avenue Presbyterian church of St. Louis, Missouri, who died on March 11, 1923, was honored on Sunday, November 25, 1923, by the formal dedication of a memorial tablet in that historic church, a clergyman from England and other ministers and laymen officiating. Rev. Dr. A . A. Wallace, Westminster ’84, pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Mexico, Missouri, who was a lifelong friend of Dr. Sneed, presided, and made a talk on the text, “ What mean ye by these stones ?” The tablet placed at the left of the platform shows in silver letters upon a deep background the inscription: ★ ★ ★ F R A N K W O O L F O R D S N E E D , D.D. Born April 22, 1864. Entered into rest March 11, 1923. Tw ice Pastor of this church, 1897-1902; 1922-1923. “For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded, H e is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. F or we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the L ord ; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.”

★ ★ ★ Alonzo Mitchell Snyder, Kenyon ’85, honored by Beta Theta Pi as one of “ The Ten,” who by individual gifts of $1,000 established the Foun ders’ Fund. Geoffrey Allan Snow, Toronto ’ 16. Gold Star brother of the World War. Name on bronze memorial tablet in the Theta Zeta chapter house. W illiam Griffith Sprague, Michigan ’15. Gold Star brother of the World War. Name on bronze tablet in Lambda chapter house. F ran k Benton Spaulding, St. Lawrence ’95, is commemorated by a bronze tablet in Public School 48, Brooklyn, New York, dedicated at a special service held November 22, 1923. The tablet which was provided by the teachers who had served under him has the inscription:

★ ★ ★ In Memoriam F R A N K B E N T O N S P A U L D IN G First Principal of This School 1915-1923. His L ife was so G entle; and the Elements so Mixed in Him That Nature Might Stand Up and Say T o A ll the W orld “This is a Man.” Born, 1865.

Died, 1923.

★ ★ ★

544

BETA LORE

Stephen T u ck er Spaulding, Michigan ’27, has a scholarship in his memory established by his mother in the University of Hawaii at Honolulu where he was a student at one time. His father, Thomas M. Spaulding, Michigan ’02, established another scholarship in the University of Michigan, designated “ The Stephen Spaulding Scholarship.” The recipi ent is to be “ chosen from among the members of the Beta Theta Pi fra ternity attending the University of Michigan, said selection to be made by a committee composed of the Dean of Students, the chairman of the scholarship committees of the university and the president of the local chapter of Beta Theta Pi.” The parents have also estab lished at the university a book fund in his memory, the income of which is at present used chiefly for the purchase of books in the field of English history. Some very rare English county histories have been purchased by this fund, and by means of it, it is hoped that the collections in English history may be rounded out and made much more com plete than they are at the present time. Books purchased on the fund are marked by a special bookplate designed and etched by W . H. W. Bicknell of W in chester, Massachusetts, who etched the bookplate for the Pendleton Library, and whose work for the Bibliophile Society of Boston is very well known. M ajor and Mrs. Spaulding presented the plate to the Library. The books purchased on this fund are further stamped on the S T E P H E N T U C K E R S P A U L D IN G “B O O K P L A T E ” back with a die reading ‘S.S.’ ” Ed w ard L ee Steele Wesleyan ’94, is recalled in the Wesleyan chapter by the Edward Lee Steele Memorial Fund whose income is used to care for

T H E C A R N E G IE W IN D O W

MEMORIALS TO MEMBERS

545

the chapter house through the reduction of the mortgage indebtedness, and the provision for additions and for emergency repairs. B ertram Shearer Stephenson, Ohio State ’o i, for his steady interest in the securing for the Carnegie chapter both a charter and a chapter house, is honored along with Mrs. Stephenson, in the central of three panels of the stairway landing window in the Carnegie chapter house.

Benjam in Franklin Stowell, Ohio ’66, a soldier in the 148th Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the Civil W ar, died in 1864. His tombstone bear ing the Beta badge, is in the cemetery of his home town, McArthur, Ohio. George Stacey Stratford, Toronto ’16. Gold Star brother of the World War. Name on bronze memorial tablet in the Theta Zeta chapter house. John Gunnell Talbot, United States Naval Academy ’63, is honored by a tablet at Annapolis recounting his death by drowning, December 19, 1870, after a voyage made with four men in an open boat of sixteen hundred miles in thirty-one days in search of assistance for the wrecked crew of the U .S.S. Saginaw. John Isaac T aylor, Ohio ’60, who died in 1857 during his college course is buried in a cemetery in Athens, Ohio, his tombstone having a Beta badge displayed upon it.

546

BETA LORE

L ee H enry Tate, Missouri ’ n , died in St. Louis in 1921 when his automobile crashed into a street car to avoid hitting another machine driven by a woman. He served in the World W ar in the United States Navy as Lieu tenant, Junior Grade. With six others from St. Louis he .presented to the Navy a motor boat which was used in the Gulf patrol service. On October 1, 1927, the Lee H. Tate Memorial Law Building was formally dedicated at the University of Missouri. Toward its cost of $150,000 the parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frank R. Tate, of St. Louis, contributed $75,000 in his memory. An oil painting of Lee Tate was presented by Elton Lewis Marshall, Missouri ’ 12, his roommate in college. A bronze bust of Tate and a bronze tab let of dedication have place in the build ing. Guy A. Thompson of the St. Louis bar indicated the spirit of the memorial in these w ords: “ Lee H. Tate stood at the threshold of a useful and brilliant career. Here he had been equipped with a splendid education. Heaven had bounteously endowed him with an at tractive personality and strong traits of char acter which the precepts and examples of home, and the inspiration he received here, had unfolded and developed. He looked for-

MEMORIALS TO MEMBERS

547

T A T E H A L L A T U N I V E R S I T Y O F M IS S O U R I ward into the years with confidence and joy. A boundless but restrained and disciÂ plined enthusiasm was his. L ife was young and sweet and full of promise to him.

A bronze tablet placed within the entrance to Tate Hall, University of Missouri.

54-8

BETA LORE

Then, one day, without warning and without fault of his, lie was brought face to face with the supreme crisis. It became necessary that he choose between safety for himself and safety for another. The way of safety for himself meant the maiming and probable death o f the other. The way of safety fo r the other meant death for himself. Though the other was a stranger, he did not falter in his choice. W ithout the hesitancy of an instant, he gave up his own life that the stranger might be saved. Heroism inspiring, self-sacrifice glorious, service sublime. T o this heroic son o f Missouri, this stately structure has been reared as a perpetual memorial. To the imperishable spirit of self-sacrifice and service that made his passing glorious, the bar o f Missouri would have it dedicated today.”

W ilb ur P atterso n Thirkield, Ohio Wesleyan ’76, the first president of Gammon Theological Seminary, an institution for negroes in Atlanta, Geor gia, is honored by an administration and classroom building there, known as Thirkield Hall. This fine structure, costing $120,000, also houses the activities of the Steward Missionary Foundation for Africa, which sup ports the professorship of missions in the seminary and creates interest in the evangelization of the African continent among the students in the negro colleges and universities of the South. Bishop Thirkield gave sev enteen of the best years of his life to the making of Gammon Theological Seminary. Joseph L o n g Thistle, Washington-Jefferson ’78, presented to his Alma Mater, the Thistle Physics Laboratory, costing approximately $51,000. It was completed in 1912, two years before his death. The building is sixty by ninety feet in size, three stories high, and practically fire-proof. It contains twenty rooms, a few of which are used for departments other than that of physics. The walls are of solid brick, the interior finish pressed brick, with concrete

T H I S T L E P H Y S I C S L A B O R A T O R Y , W A S H IN G T O N J E F F E R S O N C O L I.E G E , W A S H IN G T O N , PA .

AND

MEMORIALS TO MEMBERS

549

ceilings, and floors of maple over re-enforced concrete. Brick pillars and slate ledges insure solid foundations for sensitive instruments that must be free from vibration. Throughout the building are hot and cold water, gas, compressed air and vacuum connections, together with a complete sys tem of electrical circuits. On the ground floor are the dynamo room and instrument shop, and a double-walled constant temperature room, besides class and laboratory rooms. On the main floor are the electrical photometric laboratories, supply room, a chemical laboratory, a class room, and offices. The upper floor contains the lecture room seating 125, the apparatus and preparation rooms adjoining, storage battery room, photographic dark room, and two large laboratories. Albert Lew is Thom pson, P ennsylvania ’04. Gold Star brother of the World W ar. Name on bronze tablet in Phi chapter house. Gates Phillips T hruston, Miami ’55. A splendid collection of Indian archaeological objects, deposited in Vanderbilt University, was made by him and bears his name. He was author of Antiquities of Tennessee and other books. H erbert Cushing Tolm an, Yale ’88, for nine years preceding his death in November, 1923, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Vander bilt, is honored by a bust placed in the university library, provided by con tributions from a large number of students and friends. W illiam Dowler T u rn er, Bethany ’95, honored by Beta Theta Pi as one of “ The Ten” who made individual subscriptions of $1,000 to estab lish the Founders’ Fund, this being made in memory of his friend, Robert Hamilton Devine, Bethany ’84. A rthu r W heelock Upson, Minnesota ’05. Commemorated by a remark ably beautiful room in the library of the University of Minnesota where he was assistant professor of English when he was drowned in 1908. The room contains several thousand choice books and is designed as a quiet retreat where a student may draw apart for a while from the ordinary campus life. V ictor Clarence V aughan, Jr., Michigan ’00. Gold Star brother of the W orld War. Name on bronze tablet in Lambda chapter house. Charles Scott Venable, Hampden-Sidney ’50, professor of mathemat ics at the University of Virginia from 1865 to 1900, has a public school building in Charlottesville, Virginia, named in his memory. Daniel W oolsey Voorhees, De Pauw ’49, long known as “ the tall sycamore of the Wabash,” is memorialized in bronze at Washington, D.C., by a bust cast by his son, James Paxton Voorhees. A plaster cast is in the Indiana State Library at Indianapolis. Jam es W allace, Michigan ’59. A bronze tablet in Lambda chapter house.

Civil W ar sacrifice.

Name on

550

BETA LORE

T H E V E N A B L E S C H O O L , C H A R L O T T E S V IL L E , V IR G IN IA

Charles D uy W alker, Virginia Military ’69. First General Secretary of the fraternity; Founder, and first editor of the fraternity magazine, has his name upon the notable “ Virginia Mourning her Dead” monument on the Virginia Military Academy parade ground, Lexington, Virginia, as one of the participants in the famous battle of Newmarket. H enry W h ite W arren, Wesleyan ’53. Bishop of the Methodist Epis copal church from 1880 to 1912. The Warren Memorial church in Den ver, Colorado, is named in his honor. A bram Edw ards W elch, Michigan ’60. A Civil W ar sacrifice. Name on bronze tablet in Lambda chapter house. W illiam A lbert W irt, De Pauw ’98. Superintendent of schools in Gary, Indiana, is honored the world around among educators for the Work, Study, Play, “ Gary Plan,” ideas incorporated in the Gary school system. George A ndrew W eiler, Michigan ’ 13. Gold Star brother of World W ar. Name on bronze tablet in Lambda chapter house.

the

W ilb ert W allace W hite, Wooster ’ 12. Gold Star brother of the W orld W ar. A n American Ace. A portrait of him hangs in Mercersberg Academy, Pennsylvania. It was the work of Wayman Smith, of New York, and shows the American ace in uniform as flight commander of 147th ^Ero Squadron of the United States A ir Service, with the panorama of the

MEMORIALS TO MEMBERS

55 i

French village Dun-Sur Meuse in the background. The inscription reads as follows. “ Killed in action in France, near Dun-Sur Meuse, October 10, 1918, while driving an airplane head-on into the enemy’s to save the life of a comrade in peril. B y such heroism is the endur ing fame of our nation established. His body lies in France.” A t the Mercerburg ceremonies the memorial address was delivered by Lieu tenant White’s father, Dr. Wilbert W. White, president of the Bible Teachers’ Training School, New York City, and the portrait was unveiled by his fiveyear-old son, Wilbert W . White, III. During the war White was credited with six planes and two balloons, of which seven were officially confirmed. He was awarded the D.S.C. for intrepid courage and extraordinary heroism, September 1, 1918, while protecting three Allied ob servation balloons. In addition to re ceiving other decorations, he was one of the eighty-three Americans to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the W . W . W H IT E , Wooster ’ 12 country’s highest recognition of valor. American Ace Andrew Smith W ellington, Penn sylvania ’ 18. Gold Star brother of the World War. Name on bronze tablet in Phi chapter house. Frederick George W ilm sen, Penn sylvania ’ 18. Gold Star brother of the World War. Name on bronze tablet in Phi chapter house. L u th er Deloraine W ishard, Hanover ’76. A bronze memorial to his life and work was unveiled at Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana, on Sunday, June 5, 1927. It stands in front of the first col lege Y.M .C .A . building in the world, which has paneled above its entrance “Y.M .C .A . 1883.” Inside the building is a picture of Edward J. Brown, Hanover ’72, who was active with Mr. Wishard in the promotion of the organization. The bronze marker carries the inscription:

552

BETA LORE

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T H E A B B O T T -Y O U N G M E M O R IA L

MEMORIALS TO MEMBERS

553

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L U T H E R D. W IS H A R D , a student in Hanover, 1872-1875; a Founder of W orld Movements; Intercollegiate Young Men’s Christian Association, Intercollegiate Young Women’s Christian Association, Foreign W ork, Y oung Men’s Christian Association, here found his first vision of and experience in the Young Men’s Christian Association; Through Luther W ishard’s life and work Hanover lives and works greatly on every continent.”

De V olson W ood, Michigan ’59, professor of engineering at the Uni versity of Michigan from 1857 to 1872, is recalled by a bronze tablet in the arch at the entrance to the engineering building of the university at Ann Arbor through which runs the “ diagonal walk.” He is counted the real founder of the school of engineering. U N I V E R S I T Y O F M IC H IG A N College of Engineering Founder DE VO LSO N W OOD 1832-1897 Mathematician

Engineer Physicist Author A Great Teacher Pioneer in Applied Science and Engineering Education

The A ct o f 1837 organizing the U niversity o f Michigan provided for a chair in Civil Engineering. A professor was elected in 1853 and his suc cessor in 1855. These were followed by De Volson W ood in 1857, who resigned in 1872. Here he enlarged the knowledge of engineering and maintained the highest standards in every field o f his endeavor. This college o f engineering is a monument to his noble manhood, vigorous and inspiring personality, and unreserved energy. Erected A.D . 1917 by former students and friends in grateful memory of his teachings and life, and in testimony of distinguished services to the University of Michigan.

554

BETA LORE

John Y oung, St. Lawrence ’24. For him the beautiful Abbott-Young memorial on the campus of St. Lawrence University erected by his parents, Owen D. Young, St. Lawrence ’94, and wife, in co-operation with Mrs. Anna Abbott who paid tribute to her two Beta sons, W orth Pickett Abbott and Hugh Abbott, was dedicated on March 6, 1926.

T H E FLEETIN G Y E A R S A response at the sixth St. Louis honor Beta banquet, February 25, 1910, by William M. Chauvenet, Washington ’77. Come back from out the fleeting past Bright years when youth was ours; When every joy seemed born to last And all the way was flowers. Come back and bring The thrill of Spring, Its sunshine and its showers When we had faith in everything And trust in all our powers. Return ye kind delightful years, Y e brave and hopeful days, When we were unalarmed by fears And walked in hopeful ways; Return and bless W ith L ife ’s caress, Its fond and eager plays; The magic of a waving tress In those unclouded Mays. Give back our faith in our own strength Our pride in being strong, And all the happy breadth and length O f youth’s full throated song; The pride of place, The trilling pace, The whirl and mad ding dong And all the sweet unconscious grace O f days remembered long. But stay— I look around this board And see about me here Gray heads by all of us adored And crowned for many a year; And faces kind W ith genial mind, That bid our hearts draw near; To all our faults and failings blind, Great souls by life made dear.

THE FLEETING YEAR S And, suddenly, those years long dead, In blossoms bright return, Devoid of doubt, with truth instead, Raised from their burial urn, A ll free from rust W ith faith and trust, With stronger hopes that burn; They shake away the cumbering dust And bid us from them learn. Learn thisâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; dear boys of every age, Youthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an immortal thing That glows from every human page Where truth and beauty sing; And W inter time Is but its prime When Love is on the wing, To burst into the perfect rhyme, O f the Eternal Spring.

555

SUBJECT INDEX A Beta Illuminator..................................... A Beta Knight..................................... . A Chapter Seen from the Outside............. A District Chief’s Chapter Talk................ Addr.esses, Two Notable.............................. A Famous Beta, Alaskan Missionary......... A Forty Years’ Pastorate........................... A Fraternity Opportunity........................... After Many Years....................................... A Legend of Wooglin (Poem).................. A Letter to a Leader.................................. A Lost Beta Badge.................................... Alpha Nu Dog Legend, An....................... Alumni Chapter at Memphis..................... An Address of Welcome............................. An Alaskan Mystery.................................... An Initiation at W aveland...................... Anecdotes and Incidents A Beta’s Abiding Influence.................... A Chapter at Erskine?....................... A Dairy Note......................................... A Harlan Story..................................... A Lincoln Item..................................... A Puzzle.................................................. A Real “Jiner” . .. .................................. A “ Sub Rosa” Expedient....................... A War-Time Incident............................ Beta Beans.............................................. Beta Son Pledges Father....................... Denver Alumni Cup.............................. Dinner to Bishop Moore....................... Dr. Gunsaulus (Poem)........................... Early Meetings at Reserve.................... Farmers College Chapter....................... He Remembered the Captain................ Henry Hunter Johnson.......................... Homes of the Founders......................... Home Town Association....................... Knox Memorial Tablet........................... Letters on the Fireplace....................... Memories of Cumberland....................... Mystical Seven at Centenary................ Northwestern Memorial Volume............ Olympian Games— Footrace.................... Old Red Hot....................................• ■ •Old Time Chapter Life..................... Our Silver Grays (Poem)..................... Recalling College Days........................... Rode Pony Express................................ Stephens Croom’s Badge....................... The Abiding Spirit.................................. The Beta Doxology................................ The Beta Name..................................... The Beta Rose....................................... The Beta Spirit..................................... The Beta Sweetheart.............................. The Dragon............................................ Telling the Folks in 1871..................... The Only Greek..................................... The Purdue Hack.................................. The Tactful Crusader............................ The Thomas Chapter........................... The Trabue Ancestry............................ V.M.I. Chapter in 1870......................... Wabash Fasts......................................... When Fraternities Count....................... When Rank Was Forgotten.........* .... A Package of Old L etters...;.................. A Reminiscence of the Early Fifties......... Around the Corner (Poem)....................... Around the Council Fire............................ A Zeta Psi Proposition....................... •. . . . Badge Stories A Badge Recovered....... ........................ A Badge Story.......................................

PA G E

277 285 248 375 291 278 286 377 65 308 371 93 307 354 286 66 88

400 4Q8 418 405 419 407 403 408 421 418 403 411 408 410 413 408 406 422 399 415 398 402 406 420 410 399 416 413 419 415 413 423 421 411 417 406 402 411 416 413 400 404 409 408 398 419 409 416 415 213 245 329 67 429 104 105

Badge Stories ( Continued ) A Beta Ring Story................................ A Curious Badge Story......................... Alfred Torgeson’s Badge....................... A Michigan Badge Story..................... Badge Found........................................... Badge Restored at Banquet................. Bicycling Through France..................... Denver’s Old-Time Pins......................... Founder Ryan’s Badge........................... Guy Earl’s Badge....... .......................... John W. Noble’s Badge....................... Lost Badge Recovered........................... Riley Stratton’s Badge........................... Soldier’s Badge Found........................... The Badge Angle.................................. The Badge in India.............................. The Bobyns Badge................................ The Gunsaulus Badge............................ The Howes Badge.................................. Two Interesting Badges......................... Two Old Badges................................... Walter Dennison’s Badge....................... Woods’ Badge........................................ Baird Family................................<.............. Baird Fund................................................ Bangola-Aro-Sondang, Tale of.................... Banquets and Reunions.............................. Before Wooglin and His “Dorg” .............. Beginnings of Beta Zeta............................ Bell Song, The (Poem).............................. Beta Alaskan Missionary............................ Beta Bards of the Eighties......................... Beta Clans................................................... Beta Crusaders, The.......................... ........ Beta Engineers, Notable........................... Beta Grip, The............................................ Beta Illuminator, A ............................*■.... Beta Knight, A ............................................ Beta Singers of Long Ago......................... Beta Sort O’ Way (Poem)....................... Betas and Delta Tau Delta’s Birth........... Betas and Sigma Chi’s Beginnings............ Betas and Sorority Foundings................... Betas and the Fiji Pig Dinner................... Betas on the Supreme Court Bench........... Beta Theta Pi, Meaning of (Poem)........... Borah Paid for the Turkeys......... ............ Brother, Finding a Lost............................ Brotherhood, The Miracle of..................... Brothers as Chapter Presidents..................

PAGE

108 I ll 106 104 105 108 107 112 110 Ill 105 109 104 112 109 Ill 11 Cf 108 107 107 110

112 255 356 314 317 305 226 423 278 122 441 352 299 336 277 285 120 21 426 424 429 428 282 18 326 78 1 362

Camion Caravan, The (Poem).................. 363 Catalogue Frontispiece, The....................... 430 Challenge (Poem)......................................... 304 Chandler, Edward Brace. . . .................... 272 Chapter Cups................................................ 488 Colleges of 1839. ......................................... 219 Contributors Allen, Robert F.............................. ........ 308 Amick, George E................................... 363 Baketel, H. Sheridan............................ 63 Barr, G. Walter..................................... 150 Black, Gurdon G................................... 297 Blair, John Allan................................. 365 Bliss, Edwin W..................................... 307 Brown, Edward J.. . .............. . ............. 6 Brown, James T .......... .......................... 288 Buchtel, Henry A................................... 87 Carruth, William H................................ 355 Chandler, George M................................ 439 Chauvenet, William M.......................... 553 Coburn, John.............. . - 2Sf Cochran, Percy B................................... 361 Coulter, Stanley..................................... 115 Curtis, Grove D..................................... 84

557

JJ 8

BETA LORE PAGE

Contributors ( Continued ,) Johns-Hopkins, Fifty Years at................... Dennison, Walter E ... __ 64 Fassett, James M....... __ 282 Kinship in the Fraternity........................... Fischer, Karl W....... i, 9.8, 233 Three Generations....................... . Fiske, Horace S......... __ 59 Grandfather-Grandson ........................... Gaines, Charles K. 226 Father and Five Sons............................ Galbraith, Robert C.......... ..................... 245 Father and Four Sons............ .............. Gaylord, William H................................ 126 Father and Three Sons......................... Graves, William L ................... 1 , 13, 43, 345 Father and Two Sons.......................... Hardin, Charles Henry........................... 177 Father and Son..................................... Hatfield, James T................................... vi Seven Brothers....................................... Hills, Aden T......................................... 377 Six Brothers............................................ Holman, Guy........................................... 384 Five Brothers......................................... 70 Holt, Walter W....................................... Four Brothers......................................... Hooper, Osman C................................... 89 Three Brothers................................. . Jacquin, W. C......................................... 21 Two Brothers......................................... Jameson, Archibald Y ............................ 304 Knox, John Reily................................... 136, Keeler, Ralph Wells................ ..22, 271, 336 Kent, Frank J......................................... 423 League, The Golden..................................... Knox, John Reily....... ........................... 23 Legends of Wooglin................................... Kreimer, Ralph A ................................. 356 Letters, A Package of Old....................... Larimer, Robert S.................................. 68 Letters from “ the Forties” ......................... Lewis, John C ......................................... 72 Linton, David.............................................. Linton, David......................................... 32 Lowden, Frank 0 ................................... 352 Marshall, Interviews with Founder............ Maguire, Edward.................................... 65 Marshall, Samuel Taylor............................ Martz, J. T.............. ............................. 143 Meaning of Beta Theta Pi, The (Poem) . . 380 Memorials to Members................................ Miller, Ralph B..................................... Myers, Raymond M................................ 375 Miami, Formative Days at......................... Parks, Samuel Shaw.............................. 18 Michigan Memorials................................... Priest, A. J......................................... .65, 80 Millsaps Memorials..................................... Quinn, Arthur H................................340, 364 Miracle of Brotherhood, The....................... Ralston, Richard H................................ 67 McConnell Memorial................................... Robb, Willis O . . . .................. 36, 46, 82, 330 Monilaw Memorial Club House.................. Mother of Men....... ..................................... Shepardson, Francis W.......................... .......................... . vii, 92, 204, 349, 388 Mother of Men (Yale Song).................... Sisson, Francis H................................... 40 My Beta Days.............................................. Smith, O. Norris.................................... 291 291 Naval Academy Chapter, Our.................... Smith, Samuel C.............................. . Sprague, William C................................ 9 Noblesse O blige........................................ Stanton, William A ................................ 312 Notable Beta Engineers............................ . Van Syckle, Elbridge............................. 222 Warnock, Arthur Ray............................. 371 On the Track of the Viking............ ......... Waters, Charles E................................... 249 Our Naval Academy Chapter..................... Whedon, William T................................ 122 Our Youth (Poem)..................................... Owen, Richard Dale............................. Williams, Henry A ................................ 11 Wilson, Samuel N . . . . . ......................... 116 Our Fraternity and Its Work................... O Son of the Stars (Poem)....................... Dole Family, T h e...................................... 288 O Song That Lasts (Poem)..................... Don Francisco Stuarto (Poem)............... .. 355 Duncan, John Holt...................................... 179 Ransom, Facsimile Letter............................ Recollections of a Perfect Day.................. Early Alumni Chapter at Memphis............. 354 Return, The................................................. Richard Dale Owen..................................... Fifty Years at Johns Hopkins. 249 Riley’s First Poem, To a Beta.................. Finding' a Lost Brother........... 78 Roses, The Scent of the............................ Five Letters......... ......... ......... 300 Ryan* Michael Clarkson........................... Fleeting Years, The (Poem).. 553 Flying Across the Pacific....... 83 Seaman and the Songs............................ • Fraternity Fun......................... 317 Serenading .................................................. Fraternity (Poem).................... 13 Serving Our Members................................. Fraternity, The Ideal.............. 9 Singing at Hanover.................................. 32 Friendship ......... .'................... Smith, James George................................... From Beta to Beta (Poem)... 355 Song Book, The First Beta....................... Sons of the Stars..................................... • • Goodwin, John Samuel................................ ...273 Square Pegs in Square Holes................... Gordon, Thomas Boston.......................... ...186 St. Louis Alumni Club....................... . . . . Grandfather-Father-Son ......................... ....... 439 Grif’s Candidate........................................... ...330 The Abiding Values................................... The Badge I Wear (Poem)....................... Harbor Song (Poem)....... .............. 367 The Baird Fund........................................... Hardin, Charles Henry.................... 170 The Beta Crusaders................................... Harrison Hume Library, The......... 282 The Beta of the Future.............................. 279 He Didn’t Die................................ The Beta of Utopia..................................... 98 The Bosun’s Mate..................................... How Betas Have Worn the Badge. The Burial of Joel B a ttle ...................... The Camion Caravan (Poem).................... In a Pullman Section......... ........... 65 The Catalogue Frontispiece.............. ......... In Phi Kai Phi (Poem)................ 22 The Dole Family.............. ......................... 21 In the Beta Sort O’ Way (Poem). Interesting Things to Know........... 209 The Fleeting Years (P o em ).................... The Fraternity as a National Asset......... Interviews With Founder Marshall. 150

249

444 447 448 448 448 450 452 454 464 464 465 465 467 474 143 222 312 213 197 158 150 148 18 492 190 485 475 1 482 477 16 17 116 233 340 299 68

233 364 283 388 349 271 274 63 345 283 87 11 184 124 US 380 US 166 126 349 384 297 92

356 352 46 43 6* 72

430 3 t>t>

SUBJECT INDEX The Fraternity and the Central West......... The Freshman who is Different.................. The Gentle Art of Being a Beta................ The Golden League..................................... The Ideal Beta......... .................................. The Ideal Fraternity............................... The Ideals of the Fraternity....................... The Links of Our Bond Fraternal............. The McConnell Memorial........................... The Meaning of Beta Theta Pi (Poem) ... The Miracle of Brotherhood....................... The Pink and Blue.................................... The Price He Paid..................................... The Return.................................................. The Scent of the Roses............................. The Tale of Bangalo-Aro-Sondang............. The Testimony of Experience.................... The Ties of Fraternity.............................. The Unwritten Songs.................................. The Tom Monilaw Memorial Club House..

PAG E

204 80 36 222 40 9 23 251 482 18 1 64 290 345 11 314 50 84 62 477

The Well House at Indiana....................... The Wheeler-Bentley Fund......................... The William Raimond Baird Family......... There’s A Scene........................................... Two Notable Addresses..............................

559 PAG E

479 481 255 91 291

Values, The Abiding....................................

Walker, Charles Duy.................................. Well House at Indiana, The............ .......... What My Fraternity Means to Me............. What the Battery Log Showed.................. Wheeler-Bentley Fund, The......................... Where Bundy Held the Paris Road (Poem) Wooglinana.................................................. Wooglin, A Legend of (Poem).................. Wooglin, Before, and his “Dorg” ............. Wooglin, Legends of.................................. Wooglina, The Golden-Haired....................

351 479 59 78 481 81 304 308 305 312 -315

NAME INDEX A Abbott, Hugh...........................................492, Abbott, Worth P .................................. 492, Adams, Benjamin S . . . . .............................. Adams, Edward A . . . . ................................ Adams, Howard W....................................... Adney, W. H. G.......................................... Ahrocfn, Lester A....................................... Aldrich, Peleg E........................................... Allen, Charles B................... ....................... Allen, Fred J.............................................. . Allen, Joseph P............................................ Allen, Riley H........................................... Allen, Robert F ........................................... Allen, Samuel R............................ ............. Ambler, James M. M.................................. Amick, George E . .. . . ................ .......... . Anderson, David P....................................... Anderson, William F................................... Anthony, Horace F............................ . Andrews, Harold T .......................1.............. Appold, Lemuel T....................................... Armstrong, George W ............................ . . Armstrong, James A ..................................... Ashbaugh, Clarence V........................... 488, Aulick, Waldemar .......................................

PA G E

B Babbitt, Ebenezer C................................... Backus, Foster L ........................... ............. Bailey, Harold J ......................................... Baird, Alex W .. .. ; ................................. . . . Baird, Raymond D.........255, 262, 270, 271, Baird, William R. vii, 64, 85, 95, 140, 158, . 213, 216, 226, 255, 335, 359, 426, Baker, William............................................. Baketel, H.Sheridan................................ .63, Baketel, H. Sheridan, Jr............................ Bauning, Clinton H............................ ..495, Barclay, Julius P......................................... Barclay, Shepard......................................... Barclay, Thomas S...................................... Barnes, Charles R.............. ......................... Barr, G. Walter......................148, 150, 151, Barton, Samuel B......................................... Bascom, John.............................. ............... Bates, Charles W............................ ............ Bates, John L ............ ................................. Battle, Joel.............. .......................72,; 426, Beadenkopf, Thomas................................ Beal, Junius E................................123, 148, Beard, Henry ......................... ........ . .198, Beatty, Ormond.............. ............................ Beaver, James A ......................56, 57, 218, Beers, Wilson C.... . .................................. Becker, George L ......................................... Beckwith, Charles... ........................... .. .. . Beeson, Henry W .. ............................. . .. . . Behrens, Herbert F .......... .......................... Bennett, Emma....................................... Bellows, George ......................................... Benedict, Paul H......................................... Bentley, Charles H..................................... Berkeley, Edmund.............................. . Berkeley, Lewis ......................................... Betts, Albert R. Jr.................................... Beverley, William ........................................ Billman, Arthur A..................................... . Billman, George H....................................... Bingham, James W..................................... Birch, George W. F..................... .............. Bitting, William C.. ......... ......................... Black, Gordon G............................ 374, 297, Blain, Daniel................................................ Blair, John A................................... .89, 317,

553 553 493

490 321 325 250 218 89 89 89 83 308 358 493 363 494 225 299 494 494 250 325 494 494 225 228 324 494 495 207 495 218 317 69 424 298 495 491 495 299 214 496 298 58 496 250 488 200 209 496 69 496 432 432 496 88

496 105 481 424 424 86

419 286 285 498 52 298 406 414 365

PAGE

Blair, Richard W.....................................488, 498 Bliss, Edwin W............................................ 307 Bloom, Charles J........................................ 492 Bowlby, Robert A........................ ............... 498 Boyce, George W ....................... ! .............. 86 Boyd, Wm. F............................................. 86 Boyd, William F.......................................... 429 Boardman, Harry B..................................... 103 Boudinot, Edward C................................... 489 Borah, William E .................................. 81, 326 Brace, Dr. W. B........................................ 498 Bradford, Richard....................................... 498 Bradley, Benjamin A .. . ......................... 292, 295 Branch, Emmett T....................................... 498 Bray, Joseph T............................................ 498 Brewer, David J......................51, 111, 212, 282 Brooks* M. L ..............129, 131, 133 Brouse, Olin R............................... 325, 326, 363 Brown, B. Gratz..................................... 498, 500 Brown, Clyde............ ................................ 148 6 Brown, Edward J........................................ Brown, James.......................................... vii, 551 Brown, James T .......................................288, 395 Brown, J. Graham................................... . 93 Brown, John A ........................................... 411 Brown Oliver A ............................................ 52 Brown, Robert A........................................ 358 Bruce, Geo. H.............................................. 104 Bruch, Louis M.......................................... 500 Buchtel, Henry A............................ 87, 107, 500 Buckingham, Benjamin H.......240, 241, 242, 244 Buford, Marcus B................. 238, 239, 242, 244 Burke, Harold M...................................... . 500 Bundy, Om ar.............................................. 81 Burns, Roy L ................................... .......... 500 Burton, H enry............................................ 415 Burton, Stephen G..........................414 Bursey, Eugene ......................................... 250 Bynum, William D....................................... 102 C Cabell, Ashley ..............................298, 299, 424 Caldwell, Charles E..................................... 501 Campbell, Charles D................................... 502 Campbell, Clarence G................................ 317 Campbell, James G....................................... 430 Carpenter, Alonzo P................................430, 432 Carr, John P............................................501, 502 Carruth, William H.............................. 355, 502 103 Case, Charles C. ....................................... Cater, Edwin P............................................ 97 Chamberlain, James M........................;•••• 358 Chandler, Edward B........................ vii, 272, 439 Chandler, George M.......vii, 245, 277, 349, 358, 416, 433, 436, 439, 488 Chapin, Irving ............................................ 440 Chapman, W. B........................................ . 408 Charles, Benjamin H ....................... ...... . • • 298 Charles, Benjamin H. Jr.............................. 299 Chase, Stephen ........................................... 502 Chauvenet, William M............................... 553 Christopher, Thomas B............................... 139 Clark, Dunlap C................. ■ ........... 414, 417, 479 Clark, Frankis B.......................................... 419 Clark, John G.............................................. 502 Cleland, John E ......................................... °8 Clendenin, John C..............*....................... Cleveland, Frank N................................. . • 2^9 Coates, John E. W................................. 121, 122 Coburn, John................................... . • Cochran, Percy B............................ 361, 502, 503 Coe, Henry.............................................. 121< Coffin, James P..................... ...... • ■ ......... “£4 Cole, Robert C................................. “ 0 Colfax, Schuyler............................. 55, 111, 503

560

NAME INDEX PA G E

Collie, George L.......................................... 503 Collier, Charles H....................................... 107 Collier, Joseph.............................................. 107 Collier, William P....................................... 107 Compton, T. Wilbur.................................... 420 Condit, Milton ............................................ 412 Conlon, Chester L ....................................... 413 Conn, Herbert W ....................................503, 504 Conrad, Francis E....................................... 424 Coon, John................................................... 211 Cooper, George H........................................ 415 Cooper, Starr G.......................................... 17 Coolidge, Orville W..................................... 415 Coulter, Stanley.............................. 115, 117, 504 Covington, John 1............ 56, 134, 325, 326, 504 Craft, Frost.................................................. 504 Craft, John Y .............................................. 504 Craig, H. Brown....................................292, 295 Craig, John L .............................................. 112 Crane, James T ......................................... 358 Cranston, Earl.........................................249, 408 Crawford, Buell S....................................... 504 Crocker, Celia....................................... . 88 Croon, Stephens ..................................... 354, 423 Crowe, John Finley................................ 117, 118 Cunningham, William R.........................426, 427 Curran, Ulysses T ....................................... 425 Curtis, Grove D................................... 84, 85, 86 Curtis, Lauson S........................................ 504 Cutler, Robert A ........................................ 105 D Daily, William M...................................... 101 Daniels, James G........................................ 506 Davenport, Clark W................................... 492 Davidson, Alexander. . . .............( ............... 214 Davidson, Harry R....................................... 102 Davies, Samuel W................................... 425, 426 Davis, Charles P.......................................... 490 Davis,, Clemons H........................................ 506 Davis, John Ker..................................... 105, 106 Dean, Fred.............. ..................................... 67 Dearing, Vinton A....................................... 506 Decker, George S......................................... 506 Deeds, Edward A . . . .............................. 490, 506 DeFries, John R.......................................... 411 DeMotte, Mark L ................................... 475, 476 Dennison, Walter E................................. 64, 350 DeVine, Robert H....................................... 506 Dobyns, W. R.............................................. I ll Dodds, Samuel W....................................... 88 Dodson, George R....................................... 298 Dodson, John M.....................................506, 507 Dole, Alfred R............................................ 289 Dole, Charles S............................................ 289 Dole, George E............................................ 289 Dole, Kenneth L.......................................... 289 Dole, Norman E.......................................... 289 Dole, Sanford B.......................................... 289 Dole, Wilfred H.......................................... 289 Doolittle, Lelon A....................................... 229 Doolittle, Marshall E................................... 229 Dorman, Francis R..................................... 414 Dose, Frederick C........................................ 507 Douglas, Walter B....................................... 298 Dow, Earl W................................................ 440 Drury, Marshall P....................................... 418 Dubois, John T ................................175, 176, 204 Duerr, Carl F.............................................. 107 Dunbar, Hamilton J..................................... 87 Duncan, Andrew P....................................... 507 Duncan, David..................................... .. 107 Duncan, David S ....................... ................. 107 Duncan, James E....................................... 507 Duncan, John ,H........ 24. 31, 138, 156, 179, 180 189, 399, 507 Duncker, Charles H. Jr................. 508, 509, 510 Dunn, Williamson..................... ..............237, 243 E Earl, Guy C................................................. Earle, A. C...................................................

110 427

Eastman, William W................................... Ebersole, Morris R.......................... 139, 317, Ebnother, James R....................................... Edmonds, John C........................................ Edwards, Elijah E....................................... Eggleston, Joseph D .................................. Echlin, Henry M......................................... Eldridge, Jay G.......................................... Elliott, Isaac H.......................................... Elliott, Thomas 1........................................ Erskine, Samuel.......................................... Evans, Henry C............................... Ewing, Fayette C........................................

429 350 508 419 475 508 23 384 486 250 415 286 298

Fairchild, John B........................................ 88 Fairfax, Henry..................: ........................ 419 Fairfax, Thomas........................................... 419 Farrington, Wallace R................................83, 84 Fassett, James M........................................ 282 Favill, Henry B.......................................509, 510 Fee, Chester A............................................ 505 Finch John A.............................................. 148 Fischer, Karl W........................ 88 , 98, 233, 413 Fisher, Calen M.......................................... 150 Fiske, Horace S.......................................... 59 Fitch, Albert .........................................'21, 122 Fitch, George............ ................................. 510 Fitzgerald, Donald....................................... 23 Fletcher, Paul M......................................... 112 Flory, Walter L.......................................... 510 Forman, Henry............................................ 109 Foss, Sam Walter....................... ........... 510, 511 Fox, John H . . . . ......................................... 512 Franchot, Reginald S . . . . ............................ 512 Francis, David R. 58, 79, 173, 174, 298, 512, 513 French, Hayden T ........ * . ........................... 234 Frost, Charles H........................ .................. 513 Fry, Benjamin St. J................. * ............... 513 Fullenwider, James C................................. 88 Gaines, Charles K ..................................... 226 Galbraith, Robert C................................245, 475 Gallogly, West H......................................... 485 Galloway, James E....................................... 176 Gamble, Stephen M ................................... 358 Gantt, James B............. .............................. 298 Gard, Charles Campbeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;l . .'............ 480, 513, 514 Gard, Homer .........................................480, 514 Gardner, Theodore Y ..................... 129, 131, 133 Garvin, William E....................................... 514 Gaylord, William H .................................. 126 Gibson, Albert R.......................................... 250 Gill, Marshall W..................................... 514, 515 Gillespie, Thomas A. H.......................... 514, 515 Gilpin, Joseph E.....................................515, 516 Giwan, Noah S........................................ 413, 414 Gobin, Hillary A.......................................... 516 Good, J. Edward ...........................114, 516, 540 Gooding, James W....................................... 516 Gooding, William L ..................................... 517 Goodman, E dgar......................................... 250 Goodwin, Charles F ..................................... 273 Goodwin, John P............................ .............. 273 Goodwin, John R.......................................... 273 Goodwin, John S................................... 110, 273 Goodwin Mortimer..................................... 273 Goodwin, Robert J................................. 273 Goodwin, Thomas A ................................... 273 Goodwin, William R................................273, 276 Gordon, James L ......................................... 58 Gordon, John B.......................................... 517 Gordon, Thomas B.......31, 128, 137, 153, 154 156, 157, 180, 181, 186, 399, 517 Grace, Pierre C ............................................ 517 Graham, Thomas B....................................... 101 Grammer, Charles E................................... 250 Grant, Amandus N.........................325, 326, 416 Grant, John H................................. 122, 123, 416 Grant, Roderick M............ .......................... 105

562

BETA LORE PAGE

Graves, William L .. . 1 , 13, 43, 317, 345, 490, 517 Gray, Daniel L ..................................... 403, 518 Gray, John H................................... 403,, 517, 518 Green, John F ......................... .................. 94 Greene, John .............................. ............. 490 Griffis, James R.. . ...................................... 139 Grulee, Clifford G......................................... 139 Gunnison, Walter B.......226, 227, 228, 229, 230 Gunsaulus, Frank W.......................110, 410, 518

Hughes, Isaac M........................................ Hughes, James R........................................ Hughes, Richard L ..................................... Hunker, John J............................237, 239, Hume, Harrison.......................... ..........282, Hunt, John L............................................. Hunt, Ormond F ..................................122, Hunter, Godfrey M............................... 238,

PAGE

432 358 105 244 283 426 123 244

I H Irwin, Benjamin W............ .......... .....522, 523 518 Irwin, Charles H................................... 522, 523 Hager, Luther A .......................................... Hagerty, Daniel G ...................................... 518 Haines, Matthias L ..................................... 252 J Hale, John ................................................. 358 Jackson, Byron Jr................................ . 523 Hale, Ledyard ............................................. 229 Jacobs, Herbert H...................................... 103 Hall, Jabez .............................................. 426 Jacobsen, Lewis K ...................................... 65 Halliday, Thomas D................ ............ 518 Jameson, Archibald Y ........................ . Hamilton, Archibald W................. . 128, 204, 209 Jamison, Roy H ......................................... 304 147 Haftiilton, Robert G............................ ........ 519 Edmund A....................................... 250 Hamilton, William A ....139, 142, 301, 406, 410 Jarvis, R............................................... 107 Hammond, John L ...................................... 97 Jay, Oake Hiram G.......................................... 358 Handy, Armien ........................................... 488 Jeffery, John, Robert S............................. 273 Hanford, Franklin ................ 237, 239, 242, 244 Johnson, P........................................ 523 Hanna, John Calvin.............vii, 96, 150, 213, 264 Johnson, Frank H.....................31, 153, 156, 422 302, 249 Johnston, Henry John ........................................... 298 Hanna, Thomas C.. . ................................ . 424 Johnston, Thomas P..................................... 414 Harrbert, Waldo.......................................... 440 Johnston, William R. .......................... 273, 276 Harbine, Thomas ......................................199,519 Ralph K ................................... ........ 96 Hardin, Charles H .............vii, 137, 153, 156, 166 Jones, Jones, William E........................................ 298 170, 179, 189, 190, 204, 205, 206, 211, Jordan, Harry ............. ....................... 292, 295 399 519 Jostad, Odmund ......................................... 491 Hardy, Edwin R ....................................... 150 Joyce, Isaac M........................ . . . . . . 408 Harlan, John M................... 50, 54, 81, 282, 405 Harlan, James ......................... ............ .212/ 519 Jutikin, A. C..................... ....................... • 408 Harrigan, John W....................................... 75 K Harris, Samuel J................................... . 519 Keeler, Ralph W........................ .. .22,' 272, 336 Harris, William M................................... 66 Harrison, Henry R.......................... ............ 105 Keene, Benjamin S .................................... 426 Keister, Stephen J ................................... . 523 Harrison, Temple C................................. . . 88 Hart, John B..................................... ......... 519 Kellar, John A.............................................. 429 67 Hart, Oliver G.............................................. 519 Kendrick, William H ................................. 424 Benton O......................... .......... Hartney, James C............................ .......... 519 Kennedy, 252 Kent, Frank J........................................ 423, 488 Harvey, George W................................. Harvey, Louis P.......................................... 128 Keys, Person D ......................................... 136 King, William E....................................... 225 Hastings, Samuel D.......................415 Hatfield, James T .................. ....................... 355 Kingsland, Edwin R............................... . ■ 523 Kinnear, Wilson S. . . . . . 1..................... . •• 299 Hattori, Ichizo ....................................... . 406 Kinnison, James E.....................•.....•........ 523 Haus, Anton F......................... ................ 519 Kinsey, William M........................... . 298 Hearne, William H. R................................. 519 Bayley K ................................. . 419 Heath, James E........................................... 419 Kirkland, Walter G............................... • 523 520 Kirkpatrick, Hedrick, Arthur L ................... 519, Daniel ....... . ........................523, 524 Heizer, Robert S............................ .......... 520 Kirkwood, Kirkwood, Samuel J................................... 100 Helm, Henry T............................................ 475 Klingensmith, A ........... ................ . 525 Henderson, Carey W ................ .......... .... 520 Knight, ArthurAlonzo G . . . .............................. 416, 525 Henderson, Charles R.............................. . . 520 William A........ .......................... • • 525 Hendricks, A. W............................ .......... < viii Knotts, Reily vii, viii, ix, 23, 24, 136, 143 Hepburn, Andrew D................148, 420, 520, 521 Knox, John148, 150, 152, 153, 154, 155, 157, 163, Hepburn, Charles M.. . ................................ 419 164, 170, 176, 180, 185, 186, 189, 200, Herr, Wilmer E..................*................ . . . . 521 209, 398, 418 Herron, John .............................. 139, 398, 521 Krause, Walter 174 Hertzberg, H. F. H................................. . 416 Kreimer, Ralph G..._................................... A.................................... 86 , 356 315 Kurrus, Andrew W...................................... Hewitt, Arthur F.............................. . 320 Hibben, Henry B..................................... . . 238 Hight, Robert F ........................ . 102 L Hills, Adin T............ ............................ - • • ■ 377 ■ 424 Lacy, John A . . . ................................- ■ Hills, James H.......................................246 Hitchcock, Henry L .. . . ..........., .......... ..... 128 Lamar, Joseph R..................................... Hitchcock. John ....................................... . 129 Lane, Edward E.......................................... 414 526 Hoadly, George ....... ................55, 111, 218, 357 Lane, J. Reed............................................ 13° Hodges, George.............................. . . . . . . . 440 Landsdowne. Harry M.......................... . Hoffman, Ripley C.......................... .......... . viii Lansdowne, John Knox....... .................. .. 138 Holman, Guy ....................................... 384 Lantis, Lee 0 .......................................... 139, 142 Holton, Thomas T...................................426, 427 Larimer, Robert S...................................... Hood, George C............................ .............. 105 Larrabee, William 0 .................................. 209 Hood, William ......... ............................ .300, 521 Latham, Milton S................... - ................. 212 Hooper, Osman C....................................... 89 Lay, Frank M.......................- ............. •• 414 Lee, Clarence ....................................... ■ Hooper, Thomas W .. ................... Hooven, Paul M................... 139 Lee, John C................................................. 526 Howard, Bruce ...................... ............ • .* 521 Lee, Leslie A................................. ........ . Howard, John T ................... ..................... . 522 Le Fevre, George................................... ... . 66 Howes, Claude L....................... ............ . 108 Leonard, Homer..........................................

NAME INDEX PA G E

Lewis, John C................................... 72, 75, Liggett, James D........................................ Linn, Alonzo ....................................... . Linton, David. . . .vii, 23, 32, 153, 154, 156, 170, 180, 181, 186, 192, 209, 415, Little, Charles H..................................... . Locke, John W............................................ Lockhart, William R................................... Long, James ..................................191, 192, Loud, Harold E............................................ Lowden, Frank 0 .....................................81, Lowe, Jacob S.........................................426, Lozier, Horace ....................................17, 95, Lozier, John Hogarth..........vii, 95, 96, 98, 325, Lupfer, Edward P......................................... Lurton, Horace H...148, 212, 282, 354, 369, Lynch, Augustus D..................................... Lyon, Harry W............................................ Lyons, James ............................................ M MacDill, David L ........................................ MacDill, Edgar ........................................... MacKinnon, Lee W..................................... MacLeish, Kenneth ................................ 290, MacLeod, Mrs. Mayme.............................. McAlister, B erry............ .......................... McClain, Emlin ......................................... McCleary, Daniel ................ 6 , 201, 209, McClung, David W...................................... McClung, James M...................................... McConnell, James R................................482, McCorkle, Thomas H.................................. McConanghey, Charles W.......................... McCulloch, Charles E................................. McDavid, John J......................................... McDill, James W.......................................... McDonald, John ......................................... McDonald, Roy ............................................ McGinniss, Paul ......................................... Mcllwaine, Richard ................................ 52, McKee, Hugh Ware.................................... McKee, Hugh Wilson..233, 235, 237, 238, 240, 242, 243, McKee, James F.......................................... McKee, John L ............................................ McKee, Leila .............................................. McKee, Samuel ........................................... McMicken, Isaac T..................................... McMillan, Gavin R................................. 100, McNair, Antoine de R................................ McNeer, Lawrence A............ ...................... McRae, Hamilton S................................413, Madison, Clinton R..................................... Maestre, Sidney........................................... Maigee, Ernest D.......................................... Magee, William A....................................... Maguire, Edward.............................. ......... Mahon, Stanley........................................... Malone, Maurice E.........................396, 527, Mann, Victor I ......................................... , Marks, Russell A.....................................Ill, Marshall, Elton L ....................................... Marshall, Humphrey............ ....................... Marshall, Samuel T. ..31, 148, 150, 155, 163, 169, 170, 179, 186, 189, 192, 199, 211, 395, 396, 399, Martin, Andrew B....................................... Martin, Charles................................ . .212, Martin, Samuel K ....................................... Mason, Rodney............................................ Matthews, Stanley.. .55, 101, 111, 212, 280, Maury, Mathew F., Jr............................... Mays, George S..................... .................... Menafee, Frank G......................................... Merrick, Richard T ..................................... Merrick, Robert G....................................... Merrick, Seymour S..................................... Merrick, William S....................................... Merrill, Ernest M....................................... Merritt, Alfred D.........................................

426 176 526 158 526 252 430 526 195 526 352 427 96 148 326 299 399 417 83 53

206 206 140 526 490 491 526 432 219 424 526 280 526 317 406 52 491 491 103 527 243 239 527 243 243 406 243 210

101 234 250 414 527 491 350 481 65 412 528 65 112 546 210 168 195 528 528 215 415 201 282 419 420 419 210 362 362 362 358 108

563 PAGE

Midkiff, Robert F................................... 490, 530 Millard, Benjamin F....... ....... .............. 485 Miller, Herbert L ........................................ 530 Miller, Ralph B.......................................... 380 Miller, S. H................................................ 104 Miller, Thomas D ..................................... 299 Millsaps, Reuben W................. ..............475, 530 Millsaps, William G........................................ 475 Millsaps, William R..................................... 475 Mitchell, Craig S......................................... 530 Mitchell, H. Walton................................... 422 Mitchell, J. Ernest..................................317, 358 Mitchell, Thomas G................. 199, 209, 279, 280 Moist, Ronald F.......................................... 67 Monilaw, Thomas J................................. 477, 530 Moore, David H.......16, 18, 135, 148, 398, 530 Moore, George............................................ 432 Moore, Philip N..................... .................. 298 Moore, R. Vance........................................ 430 Moore, Thomas W....................................... 280 Morgan, Elisha............................................ 415 Morphy, J. A.............................................. 416 Morris, John S.......................... ................ 534 Morrison, Donald W................................... 530 Morrow, Dwight W..................................... 530 Mortensen, Charles N................................ 530 Morton, Oliver P............................ 284, 532, 533 Morton, Stratford L................................317, 534 Mugg, Leland S.....................................488, 534 Mungen, Theodore T................................... 217 Murchison, Kenneth .................................. viii Mussett, William A ................................... . 103 Myers, Henry H.......................................... 424 Myers, Raymond M................................... 375 N

Nance, Albinus....................................... 218, Neal, Ben E................................................ Needham, Delos........................................... Nellis, E. N . . . . . ....................................... Nelson, James P.......................................... Newberry, John Strong............ ....55, 217, Newberry, John Stoughton....................217, Newton, Clarence L................................395, Newton, Henry M....................................... Nicholson, Harry R................................... Nipher, Francis E......................................... Noble, John W. Ill, 148, 217, 298, 367, 408, Noland, C. P.............................................. Noland, N. B.............................................. Noyes, John W............................................ Nutt, Cyrus.................................................. Nutting, William W................................... Nye, Albert.................................................

534 408 110 108 105 534 534 592 128 534 298 534 419 419 300 209 68

534

O Odell, Benjamin B..................................... Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Donnell, George D................................... Osborne, Daniel E....................................... Owen, Richard D ....................283, 532, 535, Owen, Joshua T..........................................

56 411 122 536 216

P Paddock, Alexander.........128, 185, 195, 197, Page, William N., Jr............................ 292, Paige, Thomas J......................................... Palmer, Charles W.......................... .......... Palmer, Luke, Jr......................................... Parks, James J........................................ 99, Parks, Samuel Shaw................................... Parmelee, William B................................... Patterson, Frank S....................................... Patterson, John H................................. 535, Pauli, Archibald W..................................... Payne, Theodore S....................................... Peck, Heyward............................................ Peck, William W.......................................... Pendleton, A. S.......................................292, Perkins, Hiram M............................ 491, 536, Perkins, Robert J......................................... Perring, John D.......................................... Pierce, Charles R................................... 211, Pierce, George E.....................................120;

201 295 239 217 99 299 18 109 536 536 536 408 440 218 295 537 420 413 217 211

564

BETA LORE

Pierce, John.............................................129, Pierce, Marvin. ............................................. Pierce, R. F. B .. ....................................... Pierce, William H.......................... ........... Pitzer, Alexander W.......................... . Pockman, P. Theodore.............................. Poppleton, Andrew J................................... Poulet, Acton............................................... Powe, Samuel H..................................... 200, Powell, William C....................................... Priest, A. J........................., ..............65, 80, Prime, George H......................................... Pusey, William A....................................... Pyre, J. F. A .............................................

PA G E

Q Quay, Matthew S......................................... Quinn, Arthur H................................... 340,

211

416 252 21 1

537 225 54

402 210 419 384 490 419 103 218 364

R Ralston, Richard H..................................... Rankin, George C................................... 537, Ransom, Wyllys C..................... vii, 64, 217, 417, 433, 434, Rawles, P. W. H................................... 210, Reed, Henry C................... ....................... Reisner, John H........................................... Rendigs, Charles W......................... .. . 140, Reynolds, Burton R..................................... Rhoads, Baskin E......................................... Rich, Albert D.............................................. Rich, Ben C.......................................... 362, Rich, Frank D....................................... 362, Rich, William B................................... Richardson, Alonzo B................................ Richmond, Preston A.................................. Richmond, R. R........................................... Ricketts, C. Lindsay................ .................. Robb, Willis O.............. vii, 36, 46, 50, 82, 140, 263, 302, 330, Roberts, William 0 ....................................... Robertson, George S . . . . . ................ . Robertson, Melville C................................... Robinson, Archibald G............ .................. Robinson, Edward S................... . ............. Robinson, Max B......................................... Rogers, Kenneth W................... .16, 17, 62, Rogers, Thomas H....................................... Rose, Frederick F............ .......................... Rose, Theodore F......................................... Rosebro, John W......................................... Ross, Jack F................................................ Roth, John J................................................ Royse, Allen.................................................. Royse, Clarence A....................................... Rushton, William J....................................... Ryan, J. Harold....... ................................... Ryan, Michael C.............. 112, 153, 156, 180, 196, 199, 209, 399, Ryors, Alfred................................................ Ryors, Robert S... ..234, 235, 236, 238, 242,

65 206 538 479 326 419 174 89 89 492 105 184 538 235 243

S Salisbury, Rollin D..................................... Sanford, Tiel P. L ..................................... Saunders, Everett B..................................... Sawyer, Rollin A ......................................... Sayler, Milton......................................... 112, Sayles, Dwight............................................. Scales, Alfred M.......................................... Scales, Junius 1............................................. Scales, Nathaniel. .......................................... Schiff, Mortimer L ..................................... Schlieper, Martin H..................................... Schmidt, Emanuel ....................................... Schnelle, Clarence W.................................... Schurtz, Shelby B....................................429, Schweyer, Charles E.................................... Scilley, James M....................................••• Scott, John L ...........................................198, Scott, Stewart...............................................

539 539 411 121 139 121 407 407 407 539 539 206 540 540 540 411 199 540

67 538 274 438 485 490 105 142 538 88

362 440 440 362 538 403 403 277 136 335 424 250 101 424 203 86

PA G E

Seaman, Charles J.....................vii, 93, 124, 325 Shackelford, Joel W..................................... 79 Shackleton, Roy........................................... 279 Shapleigh, John S............................: 540 Shaw, Albert......................................... 252, 253 Shaw, Albert J.................................... 251, 254 Shaw, Griffin M.......... ......... 251, 252, 253, 254 Shaw, Roger . .................................. . . 251,254 Shepardson, Francis W. vii, 6 , 24, 25, 32, 81, 92 93, 97, 98, 103, 148, 158, 182, 214, 250 258, 263, 301, 302, 349, 356, 388, 427, 435, 436, 540, 541 Shepherd, John S........................................ , Shera, Philip D............................................ 139 Sherman, Raymond H.......................... . 541 Shirk, Henry................................................ 414 Shotwell, William................................ 176 Shuler, William P................................... 490, 541 Snyder, Alonzo M................................... 114, 543 Snyder, Henry..................... ....................... 209 Snyder, John C.......................................... 299 Snyder, Walter W........................ .............. 421 Spandow, William E................................... 490 Spaulding, Frank B................... s.............. 543 Spaulding, Oliver L ..................... 272, 488, 490 Spaulding, Stephen T................................ 544 Spaulding, Thomas M............................ . 544 Spellman, Clarence 1................................... 317 Sprague, William C.......................... .9, 58, 148 Sprague, William G....................... 543 Springer, William M..................................... 317 Springer, William McK................. 317 Stacker, Samuel .............................. .......... 419 Stansbury, Herbert E................................. Stanton, William A................................... 314 Steele, "Edward L....................................... 544 Stephens, William P................................... 225 Stephenson, Bertram S.............................. 545 Stevens, Edward Bruce.........142, 176, 197, 201 203, 210, 279, 280 Stillson, Joseph O................. ...................... 91 Stokes, Edward C...................................... 421 Stone, Caleb.............. *............................... 78, 79 Stone, Wilbur F........................................ 414 Stowell, Benjamin F................................... 545 Strange, William G....................................... 234 Stratford, George S................................... 545 Stratton, Riley E.................................... 109, 408 Strickler, Wiltz R....................................... 250 Stuart, Frank H.......................................... 355 Sullivan, Walter L................... .................. 88 Swartz, William H..................................... 488 Switzer, George W....................................... 81 Sigerfoos, Edward......................................... 541 Simmons, Charles L.......... ......................... 228 Simmons, Theodore...................................... 492 Simonds, Albert C................. ........ . 542 Sims, Charles N.......................................492, 541 Simpson, Ernest A..................................... 542 Simpson, John R..................23, 139, 415, 542 Simpson, Joseph D............................... . 542 Simpson, William E............................... 209 Sisson, Francis H................. 36, 40, 81, 142, 303 Smith, Alonzo A.............................. 229 Smith, Augustus L ................................. 234 Smith, Cedric A.......................................... 543 Smith, James G.......31, 153, 165, 169, 180, 197 201, 203, 398, 399, 415, 542 Smith, Lathrop E................................ 415 Smith, Louis O............................................ Smith, Marion A............................... 541 Smith, Neil F............................ ................. 411 Smith, O. Norris......................... .....291, 419 Smith, Samuel C..................................... 291 Smith, W. E................................................ 492 Smoot, Richmond K..................................... 118 Sneed, Frank W..................................... 543 Snow, Frank L.......................................... 491 Snow, Geoffrey A........................................ 543 Snow, Henry.............................. ................. 198 Talbot, John G..............233, 234, 235, 237, 238 241, 242, 243, 545

NAME INDEX PA G E

T Tappan, David H......................................... 398 Tate, Lee H..................................... 174, 546, 547 Taylor, H. Birchard.................................. 300 Taylor, George W.........................84, 85, 86, 419 Taylor, Harold R...................................... 491 Taylor, Henry....................................,.279, 280 Taylor, Herbert............................................ 417 436 Taylor, James.............................................. Taylor, John I................... .....................545, 546 Terry, Charles W......................................... 298 Thirkield, Wilbur P................................. 64, 548 Thistle, Joseph L ....................................... 548 Thom, William T ......................................... 424 Thompson, Albert L ............ ....................... 549 Thompson, Ellis D....................................... 223 491 Thompson, Lee............................................ Thompson, J. Marsh................................... 117 Thompson, Ralph......................................... 491 Thompson, Robert M..............................358, 490 Thomson, Reginald H................................. 299 Thornburg, S. Raymond.............................. 317 245 Thornburgh, Lewis..................................... Thornton, Thomas G................................... 117 Thruston, Dickinson................................... 436 Thruston, Gates P.......... 246, 432, 436, 437, 549 Tight, Dexter J............................................ 317 Tolman, Herbert C.. . .................................. 549 Torgeson, Alfred........................................... Ill 398 Trabue, Charles C., I V .............................. Trabue, Charles C., Jr.............................. 398 Trabue, Charles C., IV ................................ 398 Trexler, H. A.............................................. 178 Treyner Richard E....................................... 358 Trix, Herbert.............................................. 488 Tuller, William R........................................ 419 Tunison, Joseph S.......................... 126, 396, 411 Turk, J. "C................................................... 408 Turner, Prewitt B....................................... 108 Turner, William D....................................... 549 U Upson, Arthur W......................................... Urmston, John K............ ............................

549 81

V Van Brunt, Alexander P................. ......... Van Brunt, John......................................... Van Brunt, Frederick C.............................. Van Devante, Willis................ 81, 212, 281, Vannier, Charles H....................................... Van Ornum, John L ................................. Van Syckel, Elbridge.................................. Vaughan, Victor C., Jr................................ Venable, Charles S........................ 215, 549, Voorhees, Daniel W................................... Voorhees, Frank...........................................

440 174 440 282 225 298 222 549 550 549 104

W Wagner, C. P.............................................. Walker, Charles D................. 325, 326, 351, Wall, Edward E........................................ Wallace, Addison A ..................................... Wallace, David A ....................................... Wallace, James............................................ Warder, William........................................... Warner, Frederick R................................... Warnock, Arthur Ray................................ Warren, Henry W........................................ Warthen, Macon................................... 96, 97,

105 550 298 286 206 549

201 412 371

550 98

565

Warwick, Warrington K. L ........................ Washburn, Charles L. D.......................224, Washburn, George L................................... Waters, Charles E........................................ Watson, William P................................. 224, Watts, Joshua H......................................... Weber, Ford R.............................................. Weberj Robert R........................................ Weber, Spencer G....................................... Weiler, George A........................................ Welch, Abram E......................................... Welch, Frank J.......................................... Wellington, Andrew S................................ Wells, R. W................................................ Wentworth, Lloyd J..................................... West, William H.......... ......................... 2 1 2 , Whedon, William T ..................................... Wheeler, Charles S................................. 244, Whipple, Clement J............................... White, Wilbert W................... ............. 550, Whitney, John.............................................. Whitten, John E.......................................... Wilbor, Philo A ............................ 129, 131, Wilcox, Paul................................................ Wilhelm, Lewis W..................................... Willard, James L........................................ Williams, Henry A................................. .. Williams, Robert......................................... Williams, Roger.............................. 252, 253, Williams, Sylvester G................................... Williamson, Samuel E................. 129, 131, Willis, J. Hart............................................ Wilmsen, Frederick G................................ Wilson, Carter L ......................................... Wilson, Bluford B....................................... Wilson, Joseph G........................................ Wilson, Joseph R................................... 211, Wilson, Robert W................................... 31, Wilson, Samuel N................................. 114, Winfree, Peyton B..................................... Winslow, Lyman........................................... Wirt, William A........................................ Wise, Harry E............................................ Wise, Henry A.......................................... Wise, John S..................................... 53, 325, Wishard, Luther D..................................... Witherby, Oliver S........................ 168, 196, Wolcott, Elizur............................................. Wolf, Wingfield............................................ Wood, De Volson..................................552, Wood, Neal S.............................................. Wood, N. P................................................. Wooding, George W................................... Woodrow, David C................................237, Woods, William B................. vii, 212, 282, Wright, Edward B....................................... Wrightson, Francis G................................. Young, Young, Young, Young, Young, Young, Young, Young,

Y Charles A................................... 128, Frederick H..................................... John...........................................493, John C............................................ Owen D................................... 360, Samuel H....................................... Wesley 0 ......................................... William C....................................... Z

Zueblin, Charles .........................................

PAG E

114 225 286 249 225 284 362 362 362 550 550 530 551 408 440 215 122

481 486 551 195 106 133 64 250 411 11 483 254 335 133 317 551 317 106 109 400 419 116 299 415 550 102 107 326 551 199 128 97 553 492 112 214 243 413 128 299 129 109 553 209 554 278 408 148 409