The Beta Theta Pi - October 1883

THE BET A THETA PI.

THE CONVENTION.

There have been at least half-a-dozen larger Beta conventions then the one just held at Saratoga. There have likewise been several at which the work done was both greater in amount and more important in kind; but a more thoroughly enjoyable convention has never yet been held by Betas. Such, we think, must be the verdict of all vete1·an convention-goers upon our. forty-fourth annual reunion. Such, at least, was the impression it left with one who had been present at all of its six immed ia te predecessors.

Of course this was just what was to be expected. Nobody supposed we could gather at Saratoga-so far distant from the great western centres of Betadom-any such number of Greeks as met at Chicago, or Indianapolis, or Cincinn a ti Nor did anyone at all acquainted with the condition of the order anticipate for the convention any such unwieldy mass of business as the preceding three or four conventions , had had to grapple with: we have things in too good a shape now. On the other hand, everybody did anticipate tha t we would have at Saratoga the best of good times ; it was just the place for it. So· the Saratoga convention must have realized very closely the expectations of all wellinformed Betas concerning it. It certainly could not have dis a ppointed-in a bad sense-any reasonable hopes For our own part, it quite surpassed the limits of success we had ventured to set for it beforehand .

When the writer reached Saratoga, the evening before the convention was to open, he had been four days on the way ; and he had already got so much enjoyment out of the trip that he was prepared to declare the convention a success in advance, without waiting for any further returns. One day-a perfect day it was, too ; cool, clear, superb-had been spent upon that noble river, the St. Lawrence. From the rare passage, at daybreak, down among the Thousand Islands to the running of the last rapids, at Lachine, just before sunset, and the exciting race to the slip half an hour later; it was one series of delights, framed in a moving border of the loveliest scenery on the continent. The next day -Sunday-had been passed in Montreal visiting the magnificent churches, drinking in, from Mount Royal, the exquisite picture that nature and man h av e combined to stretch out from the foot of that truly royal mount of vision, and gaining what insight the curtain of quiet that falls over a Canadian Sabbath would allow , into the peculiar attributes of this most unique city of St. Sulpice. Then this last day of all we (for there were two of usone from Minnesota and one from Ohiowho had traveled together from Port Huron) had been riding s ince e a rly morning down throu g h a Vermont valley, with the verdure-clad ridge of the Gre e n Mountains on one hand and the calm waters of L a ke Champlain on the other . Approached, therefore, as it was, through

VoL.

paths of peace and way s of plea santne ss like these, it is no wonder the S a ratoga convention appeared a fore-ord a ined s uccess to our minds And many others had come by routes equall y d e lightful. Some had pas sed the Sabbath on th e s hore s of Lake Chauta uqua Other s had c o me up the Hud son ; still others down fro m the mounta i ns. And all were plannin g r e turn trip s of equ a l or greater int e re s t : Nia g ar a , the Adirondacks, the White M o untain s, Boston, New York , and a do z en other points were to be taken in b y the se v e r al groups of travelers on their h o m e ward way. And the prevalence of thi s feeling that the c o nvention wa s a p a rt of a b ig p leasure-trip helped to make the element of enjoyment con s p icu o us during the d ays spent at Saratoga. The committee of arrangements, t o o, h a d wisely anticipated this feelin g, a nd pro vided for its indulgence, by devoting only half of the time each d ay (except the last) to bu s iness, and reservin g the rest for junketing. The result was, as stated above, a convention unsurp a ssed in our annals for downright enjoyment.

Those of us - perhap s twenty -fi v e in num b er- who reported a t Con g re ss Hall Monday afternoon and evenin g spent the time exchanging g ree ting s , makin g - or r enewing- acquaintance s , c o mparing ch a pter - notes , inquiring a fter c o mm o n friend s , and foreca s ting the pro s pect s of the c o nv enti o n. " Let me see, thi s is-Smith [ o r Br o wn , o r Robin so n, as the c ase might be], o f K a pp a [or Si g m a or Eta]. " " Why, certa inl y; thou g ht I knew you ; hav e n't se e n y ou s ince B altimore , have I? " Oh, ye s ; Chica go " "To be sure ; remember it now." " Hell o ! here ' s J o hn so n! a nd J e nkin s ! Thou g h t lz e wa s m a rried - or deador somethin g !" "I s Baird h e re ?" "When will the Major g et here?" I s W a mb a ugh [pr o nounced ad lib .] c o min g ?" "How m a ny here fr o m Nu? " ·"Wh a t tim e d o you loo k for the Cincinnati party? " " Ye s, Seam a n's coming , with all his famil y. " " General Smith? No; sick ." "Haven't

h ear d f rom th e Virginia boys." " T hey say Schu y ler C o lfax is on L ake George; wh o h as h is address?" "Any more coming from C orne ll ?" "What's the matter with G unn ison?" "\\.ill Colby be up aga in ?" " H ow about Vanderbilt?" "Have y ou h ea rd about the Amherst petition?"

" Wh a t time do we meet?" " Where the d e uce is th e dining -room?" " Which way did yo u come?" "Maine State? Why, c er t a in ly !" ''No, not Union, but Madison."

"Did yo u !:iring your jife?" "Who ha s e e n Capta in NcNair?" 'Yes, John R iley Knox w ill be h ere, sure." "Is Covington b a ck fr om Eu rope?" "Oh, yes; you were c o r. sec l as t year, weren't you?" etc., etc., e tc. Th e n we stro ll ed off in groups, or p a ir s, vi s iti ng t h e springs, listening to the mu sic in C ongress Park, making t h e ro u nds of the h o t els, and getting the hang of the town. M os t of us retired betimes, aware that not m a n y f ull n ights' rest would be obta i na ble fo r t he n ext few days.

Ne x t m o rnin g our numbers had swelled consider a bl y . T he boys had been comi11g in durin g th e night, and the morning trains brou g ht a good m a n y more. T he racket of the pr eceding evening was redoub l ed, and fr es h a rr iva ls kept adding to the groups th a t s urge d back and forth in the office, a nd on th e p iazza, of the hotel. R ansom and Se a m a n , w ith their wives, we re on the ground. W ill iams and Wamba ugh, from " h ea dqu arters," had got there, with a p ar t y of Ohi o a n d I n diana boy Heat h , o f Richm o n d, was there, but not up yet. Baird , B e e be, F la c k and Brow n we nt dodgin g rom1 d, fl a un ting t heir si l ver-monog ram com m it tee-badges i n everybody's fa ce. In all abo u t sixty men had r eg i st e r e d at h ea d q u ar t ers before the co n ve nwa s call e d t o order, at e l eve n o' cl o ck , 111 the ball-r oom o f the ho t e l. L ate r arrival s bro ug ht th e n u mber u p abov e e igh ty -a small num ber, t o be s u re; for a m o d e rn B:ta con ve nti o n , but, co n side r i n g ev erythm g, a s large as c o ul d h ave bee n lo oked for.

Scarcely had the t e mp orary organiza ti o n

been effected, and committees on credentials and on permanent organization been set at work, when " Pater Knox" entered, and was presented to the convention, amid cheers. He gave us a fatherly speech, that brought another round of applause, and took his seat among the boys to see the work. A moment l ater, upon the recommend ation of the nominating committee, Major Ransom was introduced as permanent chairman, and then there was another speech and more cheers After announcements froin Flack, of the entertainment committee, an adjournment was had, till five in the evening, when we were to meet in the court r oo m of the Cit y Hall, which Capt. McNair had secured instead of the les s convenient ballroom.

After lunch came the fir s t excursion. It was a coach -ride out through the Park, then back past the race-course to S a ratoga L ake. Three tally - ho coaches had been engaged, and the crowd that filled their commodious roofs sets Saratoga staring very shortl}. The drive lasted three hours, with a rest of a half-hour at the Lake. And during all that time the thirty or forty Betas who took the trip kept up a s'te ady stream of " high-jinks, " notwithstandin g half-a-do ze n of them had wives or sisters along. The y sa n g two or three hundred college songs, each coach-load trying to drown the others, held fortissimo conversations from roof to roof, and " salu ted " all who met them, on foot, horse-back, or in c a rriage s . Dismountin g at last in front of the City Hall, the convention was called together to hear the reading of the lists of standing committees, and receive the reports of the General Secretary and Board of Directors The record of an uneventful but prosperous year was li s tened to with approval, and the statistical t a ble accompanying the . Secretary's report was, as last year, the object of great interest. In the evening a good many of the boys went to th e weekly hop at Congress Hall, which had been postponed from the pre-

ceding evening " because the Betas were coming." Tho se who did not acknowledge the sway of Terpsichore passed the evening hours in some of the countless places of int erest and amusement close at hand.

Wednesday forenoon was spent in routine-work in the convention-room, hearing reports, motions and communications. In the afternoon an excursion was made to Mount McGregor It was a ten-mile ride on a narrow-gauge railway, ending at last in a natural park or pleasure-ground at the summit of the mountain. Here a magnificent outlook was had for miles up · and down the valley of the Hudson. Across to the ea s t a white spot standing out against the heights that rise beyond the river is the monument that marks the place where Burgoyne surrendered, and all the valley below it is full of reminiscences of the famous autumn campaign that broke the British power in the north. Capt. McNair, of our party, an Eta man, a United States naval officer, and a Saratogian by residence, is one of the committee intrusted with the work of making appropriate sites on the several battlegrounds for the erection of tablets and monuments, and his detailed description of the ground and of the events that made it hi s toric adds greatly to the interest t a ken b y the party in the scene. A few committees get off by themselve s to prepare report s for to-morrow 's session , but most of the boys are still on the "high" they began yesterday, and they make it a liv e ly afternoon for all other visitors to M o unt McGregor. G o ing down, Betas take entire po ssess ion of one open car , and they sing, laugh, tell stories, stop the tr a in to gather golden-rod, and generally" run the machine."

Back to Saratoga in time for tea-no, dinner; see bill of fare. A little later the convention, and not a few visitors as we ll , gather in the ball-room to li sten to Chancellor Sims' fine, thoughtful oration on "the March of Manhood to Its Inheritance of Rights ." He is listened to with steady in-

terest throughout, and warmly applauded as he takes his seat. The poet-Gordon, of Vir g inia-has n o t put in a n a pp ea ra nce, nor is anything whate ve r kn o wn of hi s whereabouts, notwith s tand i ng he h a d reported himself at work on hi s p o em o nly a few weeks ago. He will be fined, of c o urse . Thursday is a da y of the ste a die s t kind o f c o nvention work, forenoon a nd afterno o n Amendments are intro duced , pas sed , and l a id o n the table for the a cti o n of next y e a r's convention, making fo ur y e a rs, instead of -three, the interval at which we must meet in Cincinn a ti, and pre parin g the way for a perm a nent and unch a ng eable sy s tem of chapt e r n o menclature, if the Gener a l Secretary can devi se one before the h olding o f th e n e xt c o nv e ntion. The amendment passed a ye a r ago making the conventi o n bi e nnial, in s tead of a nnual , is non-concurred in. General o ffice rs are el e cted, among the new one s being Judge Aldrich, of Worce s ter, Mass ., and W. B . Burnet, of Cincinnati, to the Board of Directors, and L. C . Ha s cail a s Visitin g Officer. General Secre tary W am bau g h is re-elected, a s are the Catalogue Agent, Song-Book A g ent, a nd the third outgoing Director, R. Harvey Young. A charter is g ranted petiti o ner s a t Amh e r s t ( members of the " Torch and Crown " local society), and a pled g e given to Vanderbilt , redeemab l e when anti-fraternity laws a re rep ea led th e r e. Colby is n o t p ro p e rly endor sed, s o doe s not c o me up fo r action, and th e same is tru e of one o r two other applic a nts R e p o rts of c o mmitt ees p o ur in , a nd mi s c e llaneous re so luti o n s a bo und In th e mid s t of th e rush a bri e f a djournment is h a d , while a group phot o graph of th e c o nventi o n is taken , o n the C it y H a ll s t e p s, with C a pt. McNair and hi s d og- a fin e c o ck e r sp ani e l- in the fo reground. Then to w o rk a g a in. At l as t , a fter the cu s t o mary v o te o f th a nk s , the la s t so n g is s un g, and the c o nv e nti o n s t a nds adjourned , without day as the fo rty -fo urth, but t o gather a g ain ne x t y ear, as the fo rty-fifth, in Cl ev el a nd , 0.

In the evenin g c o m es t h e annual banquet at Con g re ss H a ll. It is a n eminently dist i ngui s hed affa i r, of c ourse. A good many ladi es a r e pr ese nt , th e menu all that could be a nd th e speeches excellent, intersper se d , we n eed not say, with excell e nt si n g in g, un der b rother Fred Wilcox's leaders hip. Maj or R ansom opens the ball with an a dmir ab l e s p eech on "B fJ If-a National Fra t e rn i t y." "Pater Knox" follows with a v er y i n t eresting account of B e t a affai rs in " thirty-nine." Then Alling, of C o rn e ll, s p o k e b r i g htl y to the neat to as t , " Th e S t ar in the East." He is fol· low e d in a ch armi n g talk by General Thru s t o n , o f Nas h vi ll e, whose theme, "The True Gr e ek- F i rst in War and First in P ea c e," furni s h es him with subject matter that interes t s a nd de l ights the whole tabl e Th e n t h e speaking is closed by a th o u g htful and cl assica l respo n se from Secr e t a r y Will iam s, of the Board of D irectors , to th e t o a s t, " Our Fut u re," a r esp o n se full o f h op e a n d br ight prophe cy. La s t of a ll, the m ys t ic circle is formed, t h e "breakin g -s on g" su n g - and the exercises of the forty -fo urth a nnu a l c onvention are at a n e nd. Tim e, 2 A M., Friday, August 31st

The y say a y oun g lady a l ways puts the mo s t importa nt thi ng i n her letter into a post s cript. Our co n vention schedule t his yea r w a s arr a nged on a somewhat si m ilar principl e . F o r th e most de l ightful fea tu re of a ll w as th e L ake G eorge tr i p of Friday, the da y a ft e r th e c o n ve nt ion adjourned. Despite the l a te h o u rs k ept the night befo re , ab o ut th ir ty B etas, c ounting men, w o men , and " T o m my" Seaman, appeared at the Delaw a re an d Hu dson depot in time for the S:I') m o rni ng train. T h e route, by r a il, r a n a lon g th e western shore of Lak e Ch a mpl ai n , p as t t h e site of o l d Fort Tic o nder o g a, brin ging up at last at Baldwin , at th e foo t o r northern end of Lake Ge o r g e. H ere th e w h o l e party embark e d o n the st e a m e r " H oricon, " for t h e return ride up the l a ke Th ere is no more b eautiful s heet of w a ter on t he g l obe, they

say, than Lake George. Certainly the ride over its blue surface that last afternoon in August was as nearly perfect a bit of a pleasure-trip as any of us need care to recall. The steep, wild hills that run down to the very water's edge, with Swiss-like cottages at their feet, or nestling half-way up their slope, the neat landings, leading back to cosy summer hotels on either hand, the ever -ch anging curve of the shore, as bay and inlet, isle and promontory, glide past, and the no less variable sky-line, now cut into sharp angles by jutting peaks, and now swelling in long billows across distant knoll; the deep dayblue overhead, and the scarcely less profound blue of the lake underneath-all combine to make a panorama unexcelled in the same compass anywhere in the world. And the day was perfect, and the party, it need not be said, a congeniaf one.

At Hulett's Landing, half-way up the lake, a party of college men, and some ladies, hailed the boat, as we touched, in true college fashion : "Ra! Ra! Ra! H!

U! L! E! Two T's! S! HULETT'S!"

We made note of the address thus somewhat ostentatiously furnished us, and passed on up the lake. Almost at the head of the lake, only a few miles from Caldwell, is the snug gray convent of the Redemptorists, perched half-way up the mountain, on the east side of the water. The holy fathers have a yacht of their own, and certainly can not complain of the site or privileges of their house. Caldwell at 4:20, Saratoga, by rail, at 6. A good many of the crowd are going right on through to Albany or Schenectady, en route for home. Only ' a few of us get off to spend a day or two of rest and quiet enjoyment at Saratoga. We have several days before " moved "from Congress Hall to the Waverly, a home-like hotel farther up Broadway, where they let us do as we please, and don't "paralyze" us with magnificence and dumb-waiters. Saturday and Sunday pass in real, restful quietexcept when Seaman gets going about

his" club-house scheme." Oh, that clubhouse! We have written all these pages, · and never once mentioned it. Seaman couldn't have done that to save his life! You see, that Beta club-house project was hatched during the Sunday the Ohio party had spent at Chautauqua on their way to the convention. It embraced the purchase of a plot of ground on Lake Chautauqua, and the building thereon of a lovely Beta summer resort-all to be done by a joint-stock compan)r of Betas. Never mind the details; you'll get a circular soon enough. And twelve hundred dollars had actually been subscribed to the enterprise during the convention. Seaman was wild over the scheme -cra zy. When you talked to him awhile-encouraged to go on at greater length by his air of profoundest attentionno matter what the theme-catalogue, next year's convention at Cleveland, Lake George, "Tommy's" last caper, or what not-he always began, when you got done, with "when we get that built." He steadily insisted on our going home via Chautauqua with him, to look over the proposed site of the structure he was always mentally building. At last, out of regard for his wife, who would infallibly be talked to death unless somebody came to the rescue, and who is too fine a ·woman and too good a Beta for any such fate, we agreed to the plan, ran down to Albany Sunday night, sold our ticket next morning, bought another by way of Jamestown, and started out to join Seaman and his family on the road as agreed upon. Well, it took over thirty hours to find him. For, in the first place, our tickets didn't go the same way after all, but one by Binghampton and one by Rochester, · and after missing connection at the latter fJlace, and spending the night we crossed over to Salamanca the next day, supposing Seaman must be a day ahead of us, and resolved not to stop at Chautauqua at all, when lo! here he comes, striding along the station platform, just as chock-full of club-house as when we parted

CONVENTIONALITIES

from him . He had been delayed, too. So we all rode to Jamestown together, took a boat-ride up over L a ke Chautauqua to Mayville and back, finally pas sin g judgment on the several eligible sites for that club-house, and parted at last at midnight, he and his family to spe.nd the night at

James town, we to come home as fast as the night-train would bring us.

From first to l ast, a delightful trip In what we fear may be a vain effort to duplicate it, we propo se to go in succession to all the Beta conventi ons held during our natural lifetime-fir st of all, Cleveland in r884.

CONVENTIONALITIES .

"THE dog, with ever-present a id," Applauded when a point was made.

THE -Major to Baird: " Let an old man give you some advice: shave!"

BAIRD reported his new edition of "College Fraternities" nearly through the press. It will be in great demand.

IT HURRIED up the dollar subscriptions to the paper when the committee reported recommending that the price be raised to two dollars.

THE assistant secretaries, Fearn and Dyer, kept their work up all the time, and didn't have to stay over after the convention to copy-off minutes.

THE outlook for the greatest convention of our history, at Cleveland next year, is very good indeed. No better place could have been selected

THE club-house project took with everybody at first sight. Seaman mentioned it occasionally-or oftener-in conversation, and it was a favorite theme with many others.

A GOOD many ladies attended convention this year. Among those who came with sons, or ·brother s, were Mrs. and Miss Baird, of New York; Mrs. Ransom, of Lansing; Mrs. J. R. Knox, of Greenville, 0.; Mrs. Athon , of Indianapolis; Mrs. Seaman, of Cleveland; Mrs . Beal, of Ann Arbor; Mrs. Gen. Thruston, of Nashville; Mrs. D. G Hamilton, of . Chicago; Mrs. T. D. Wood, of McKeesport, Pa., and others

OMEGA w ir ed greetings again, and sent her vote on a propo sit ion or two. She never lets a conv e ntion p ass m silence, though she can't always get across the continent from Berkely by any other road than Western Union.

WORTH MERRITT 'S name str uck so me of the boys, the fir s t time they heard it, as • db "N 1 being "too goo to e true. on sense. A Delta man is ju st as likel y to be n a med Gilt Edge, or First Water , or Pure Gold, as other people are to be called Smith.

THE melancholy vVarwick was on h a nd again, with a mu stache that hid so much of his cheek that many fa iled to recognize him at first. He and B ea l had brought their "wheels," and rode a ll ove r the countr y in the interval s of busines and social

CAPT . MeN AIR's services as h os t , guide, intelligence officer, and advisory committee were invaluable. Not only the convention as a body, but half it s members individually were under continual ob li gations to him for special courtesie s a nd kindnesses. By the way, it was good to see the Captain and General Thru s ton get together to talk "minerals." The former has already given away, to Harvard and the Naval Academy , tw o good collections of precious stones ga ther ed in his travels over the world, while the latter is said to have one of the finest private cabinets in America. They made the "stones cry out" when they found th at each had made the other's hobby his own.

IT wAS the general opinion that the Amherst matter had been very ably and deftly managed We start there under favorable omens . E. M. Stevens-formerly of Rho-who heads the list of petitioners, was on hand to represent his crowd

THE reporter for the Saratoga 'Journal -an Alpha Delta Phi, by the way-gave full and intelligent accounts of the convention in his paper every day. He knew a fraternity convention from a grain clique, which was more than one Chicago reporter did, we remember.

HEATH had made a most heroic effort to bring a big delegation from the South, but after all had to come alone-not even the poet with him. After the convention he strolled off in the direction of the Adirondacks, in search-Mrs. Seaman felt sure-of more pretty girls to look at.

HARRY FLACK was indefatigable in his efforts to arrange excursi ons, secure , special rates in coaches and railroads, and give the boys the full benefit of the recesses of convention. Harry would make a lovely theatrical manager, or railway · excursion agent. His talents are wasted teaching at Claverack.

THE common impression that the typical Harvard man is the victim of a grave and unaspiring indifferentism, who doesn't findlife worth living, but doesn't want to talk about it-a sort of intellectual dude, in fact- was a good deal disturbed, for the Westerners, by Winkley's presence at Saratoga. "Wink" is altogether a different sort of person from that.

Gm. HAMILTON was in New York City, waiting with impatience the coming of a man with whom he had an important business engagement, and fearful he was going to be chiseled out of the convention by the delay, when his man sent him a telegram like this: "Sorry to inconvenience you, but can't you meet me in Saratoga?" Gib. rather thought he could.

IT wAS something of a singing crowd. The guests at the Waverly got that impression Wednesday night, at least. Men from Cornell and Kenyon, Schenectady and Evanston, Maine and Michigan, joined in "Litoria," "Nut-Brown Maid," "Lauriger," and a thousand and one other favorite specimens of academic hymnology, with a vigor that left no room for alarm as to the state of their lungs.

"JEEMS" BROWN polished up that dollar-and-a-half committee- badge every morning before he came down, hoping to drive the rest of us wild with jealousy. Jeems says he and Baird comprise the whole of the de facto New York City Alumni Chapter, and that they hold frequent meetings over their oysters, issue circulars, assess the de jure members, divide the offices between them, and transact business in true metropolitan style.

THE following was adopted by a standing vote at the forty-fourth convention, August JO, r883:

Resolved, That we have learned with deep solicitude of the protracted illness that has prevented the attendance of our esteemed brother, Gen. Robert W . Smith, of the Chicago alumni , at this convention. That we miss his accustomed attendance at this annual gathering of the fraternity, and sincerely hope that its next occurrence will mark his complete restoration to wonted health and his genial presence among us.

OFFICERS FOR ENSUING YEAR.

Board of Directors (Term expires S ept. 4, 1886.)

R. HARVEY YouNG, Cincinnati, Ohio.

WILLIAM B. BuRNET, Cincinnati, Ohio

HoN. P. E. ALDRICH, Worcester, Mass. General S ecretary.

EUGENE W AMBAUGH . Catalogue Agent

CHAS. J. SEAMAN, Cleveland, Ohio. Song-Book Agent.

W H. JANUARY, Maysville, Ky. Historiographer.

JoHNS GooDWIN, Beloit, Kan. Visiting Officer.

L. C. HASCALL, 5 East Fuurth street, New York City.

OuR Southern men are not good convention-goers, that ' s clear. Heath was the only delegate from the Old Dominion. Distance don ' t seem to have much to do with it , either. There were n e arly as many Virginians at Chic a go in '8 1 as at Baltimore in 'So. The chapters should at least do as well as the Californi a si stersend regrets when they can't come in person.

GEoRGE BEEBE had it bad-so bad that he couldn't keep still about it. She was from Baltimore, we believe, and he had never seen her before; but that made no difference. George finally made a desparate effort to tear himself away and go home. But she l ooked at him, just once, across a ten-rod hotel parlor, and George came down like Crocket's coon. He may be there yet, for all we know .

HERE are some of the regrets:

[Telegram.]

NIAGARA FALLS, August 29. Williams and Wambaugh, Congr ess Hall, Saratoga:

Sorry, but can not be at your banquet. Good time to you .

DURBIN WARD.

[Letter.]

WoRCESTER, MASS., August 27.

' MY DEAR SIR-My preparations to be in Saratoga to-morrow were all made, and until this morning I expected to carry them into execution. But circumstances have now arisen to deprive me of the anticipated pleasure of meeting our brothers of Beta Theta Pi in convention. I regret all the more my inability to attend the convention, because I had hoped, through it, to aid in making our fraternity better known to the colleges and scholars of the East than it had hitherto been. I must, however, yield to the inevitable, and, ardently hoping that the convention may serve to s trengthen the bond of brotherhood between the South, East and West,

I remain yours most truly, P. EMORY ALDRICH.

W. 0. Robb, Esq.

THE followin g fr o m th e Governor of Indiana:

EX ECU TI VE JD EPA R TMENT, INDIANA PO LI S, A ug ust 20, r883 S

GEN TLE MEN: -Y o u r c a rd i n v i ting me to attend the f o rty -fo urth c onventio n of the Beta Th e t a Pi , t o b e h e ld at Congress Hall, Sara t oga Sprin gs, on z8th, 29th and 3oth in s t. h as b een rece ived. I reg r et very much that my bu s in ess e ngagements will be s uch a t th e tim e appo m ted for the convention a s t o pr event m y being present. Hopin g that th e occasio n may be a most happy on e, I h ave th e pl eas u re of subscribing my se lf in--x a! -Your s ve r y t r ul y,

A. G: PORTE R .

[Po s t a l Car d .]

SouTH B END , I N D , A u gust 28 Secretary Beta Theta Pi Conv en t ion, S aratoga Spri.,;,gs , N. r.:

MY DEAR BROTH ER- Y o u ca n n o t realize, amid your fr a tern a l g r eet in gs, h ow great is my sorrow th a t I can no t be wit h my brother Greek s a t th e i r r e uni o n th is week, to sing with them th e so n gs o f 1W ooglin, as we cla sp h a nd s t oge th e r for " auld lang syne " But , th o' far away, I will be with you in s pirit o n Thur s da y night; and, in the language o f the g r ea t Irish orator, "my heart sh a k es h a nd s with all of you ."

Fraternally yours in x ac SCHUYLER COLFA X.

A DELEGATE to the c o n ve nti o n fr o m an Eastern chapter write s hi s impr ess io ns of the convention a s f o ll o w s (A s the brothers personall y a lud e d to h ave not a chance to run their mod es t p e ncil s through his admiring parag r a ph s, the present editor delights to gi v e s p a c e to the none-too-exalted praise , which might otherwise have been stricken out) :

"The thi.ng that struck m e f or cibl y was the Simllanty of Beta s; n o t in a ttir e for everyone in Saratoga dre ss e s we ll , but I am sure good looks had s om e thin g to do with it. It made me w o nd e r h ow s uch an unanimity of sentiment o n th e m a tter of choice should per v ade f o rty -three Widely-separated chapters; h o w s ectional manners and prejudices could be s o o v ercome as to choose such men who would be at home not only in their own chapter

but throughout the whole Beta world. It recalled vividly to my mind the impression made upon me when with my chapter-that I had never yet met a Beta unworthy of the name. I was puzzled by the intuition that led me to address many of the delegates, not being positive they were Betas. I did not make a single mistake. Of course, I am speaking of those not wearing any distinctive mark or badge. As I had seen very few of the delegates before I met them at Saratoga, I think the recognition must have been caused by the peculiar air one carries with him when connected with some great enterprise. I do not mean they acted as if they "had a mortgage on the whole town," but they certainly showed the proud consciousness of their being Betas, and of contributing to the advent of Beta Theta Pi in the East. Another thing, brother editor-excuse personalities-but please allow . me to ask: Why did you not prepare us in some way for meeting Willis 0. Robb? It took just half my time listening to him talk. Now, I do not mean he talked too much. Not at all; I would have been delighted had he talked twice as much, and so monopolized all my time. He has one power which very few men have, and that is ability to talk to listeners. If Ohio, in her great benevo-

lence in creating government officers, would make him more prominent, I should be satisfied. Brother editor, it was a very striking gathering. Another stroke was brother W. R. Baird's quiet, unassuming way. I had been led to believe, from his spicy "Other Fraternity Notes," his "American College Fraternities," and occasional communications and personal . encounter , that he was, to say the least, so mew hat aggressive. Is brother Baird always that way? If so, I conclude that he must have had his "greatness thrust upon him." I am sure all will concede that the forty-fourth annual convention was a credit to him, as I am told he was almost alone in all preparations for it. We were fortunate in having a president who has the interests of the fraternity so thoroughly 'at heart as Major Ransom. It was his fourth time in that capacity in the last ten years, he having presided at the convention of I874,1875 and x88o. Is it any "(Onder he filled the place so admirably? Did anyone ever see such a fountain of vast and varied information as Eugene Wambaugh? Was not everyone deeply interested in the pater John Knox? Brother editor, did you not hear everyone say positively that he would be at Cleveland next year? I did."

ADDRESS OF CHANCELLOR SIMS

BRETHREN oF B 8 fl-In the bonds of our fraternity, and the memory of college days and student struggles and aspirations, I greet you to-night I count it cause for gratitude that these early associations can project their brightness so far along the pathway of life, and that these fraternal bonds can bear without breaking the tension of separation and the weight of careburdened years. We are all happy together to-night. You who are yet breathing the charmed atmosphere of college life, I am sure, will catch broader and higher pur- · poses, while we who are older "Will stt·etch the hands of memory forth, And warm them by our hearth-fire's blaze," and feel again-kindled afresh and with brighter glow-the enthusiasm which too often burns low as years pass by.

Asking you to accept, as if spoken, all fullness of best wishes which might require minutes for I proceed to discuss the topic of my address, which I might call

THE MARCH OF MANHOOD TO ITS INHERITANCE OF RIGHTS.

I ask you to contemplate with me somewhat of the way which man has trodden in his march to the front in all manly achievements; to note his exodus from the bondage of oppression, ignorance and superstition, and his desert wanderings towarJ the Canaan of enfranchised humanity. He has not yet entered that land, but he is so near its borders that, standing on the mountain-top of expectant vision, he can trace its landscapes of mar-

velous beauty, and exult in the prospect which stretches before him. Nay more. His adventurous spies have crossed over and brou<Yht back some of the fruits which b grow in its fertile soil. There have been seas and deserts to cross in the march , but there have also been the smitten rock and the heaven-sent manna. There have been valleys of shadows, but also peaks of cheering outlook; occasional defeats and retreats, but, on the whole, steady and cheering progress.

There are two volumes of hum a n history, making epochs of very diverse characteristics.

The first embraces a long, dark period, when, impelled by the fiercene ss of his own nature or the force of circumstances, every man was an Ishmaelite; his hand against every man and every man 's hand against him. It was an era of robbery and cruelty. The c}ty of refuge was the only shelter from the hot anger of the blood avenger. The spear of Goliath and the club of Hercules were symbols of the power most generally recognized ·and respected among men. The brigand of the mountain took lawless tribute from the toilers of the plain. Booty was cause for war, and victory license for every cruelty. Violence ruled in the earth, and pity was not yet born.

The second volume begins with the incoming of a wholly different period. Another impulse was acting upon the hearts and minds of men. Social institutions and personal aspirations began so to change that the world, recognizing a new birth of time, revised its chronology, and no longer counted its years Urbs Condita and Anno jlfun di, but made Anno Domini the beginning of its dates.

The ministry of "Jesus of Nazareth," the lowly -born, illiterate carpenter, beginning in the midst of sneers, continuing through an incessant storm of persecution and slander, and dxowned in blood after three s hort years, was yet able to change the current of .the world's thought, hope

and conduct for all subsequent time. It was long before the new civilization was understood and efficien t among the world's masse s and masters.

I. THE STRUG GLE OF MANHOOD FOR EQUAL RIGHTS.

If we direc t our attention to Europe, with littl e regard to exact locality or dates, anywhere fr om the tenth to the sixteenth century, the fact will be instantly apparent that manhood, as such, had no recognized and acknowledged rights anywhere. Not brain, coura ge, will, ambition, or genius; but birth, lineage and property determined what a man might do or own, what he might aspire to, and even what he might eat and wear, or where he might live. Manhood gave him no civil or social status whatever. It was because of his value to the king, the landlord , or the master that he received even the l east protection from the law A money eq ui valent would satisfy justice for any outrage upon person, property, or life, and these fines were imposed, not according to the injury suffered, but according to the rank and station of the victim An offense against a bishop was three times as severely punished as the same offense against a freeman, while violence against a serf was scarcely punished at all, except to reimburse the loss and inconvenience of his owner. The lower classes paid the t axes, and the upper classes enjoyed the protection. Modes and articles of dress, as a means of distinguishing rank, were prescribed by law with as much particularity as army regulations · fix the uniform of officers and privates. The Goarse blue coat or cloak advertised the London apprentice wherever he was seen. Silk , attire was the exclusive privilege ofroyality. Th e law forbade all unmarried per sons to wear fingerrings, except judges, doctors and lawmakers. But betrothed person s were admitted to the jewelry privilege s of m arried people, and hence arose the and custom of engagement rings.

The fanner might not shoot the game which destroyed his growing grain. The tenant dared not leave the land he occupied, and the lord could take from him everything he possessed, imprison him as often and as long as he pleased, having to render no account of his conduct to any but God. The king, lords and bishops claimed as their wards all the heiresls and widows residing on their estates, and could compel them to marry anyone at their bidding, without the s li ghtest regard to the lady's own wishes. If a lady of wealth refused to marry any one of three persons chosen for her by her master, he could levy on her estate for the price of a husband ,

One old law f01 bar:le a widow to marry in less than a year afterlo.sing her husband. But even then there were limits to human forbearance. That law was soon repealed.

A father could compel his daughter, no matter , what her age or opposition, to marry whom he pleased. A rnemento of this disregard for all the finer feelings of the soul has been preserved to our own times in that part of the marriage ceremony which solemnly propounds the q uestion: "Who giveth this woman away?" I am happy to say there is usually no truth whatever in the pompous answer of some masculine relative when he responds: "I clo." The fact appears to be that the "giv in g-away" has usually been done, long before, by the lady herself "at or about" 10 o'clock in the evening, in some quiet parlor, in the absence of all spectators, and with the shutters carefully and properly closed.

The feudal system held all society continually either in a state of active hostility or armed neutrality. It never permitted the world to enjoy the blessing of real peace. While splendid churches and massive castles rose under the direction of the rich and noble, the houses of even the better-off of the common people we1'e wretched in architecture and uncomfortable in appointment. The ordinary dwel-

ling-house was a single square room, with thatched roof, no chimney, and almost no furniture. A reliable historian says: "As late as r 57 5 most of the houses of Edinburgh were the poorest huts, thatched with the boughs of trees, which in case of destruction could easily be rebuilt in three days by the occupants." The habits of the poorer people were in keeping with their houses. A good authority says, speaking of about the same date: "Soap was not made anywhere in Scotland, there being too small a demand for it to justify the trade." He further states that "the women did not wash their linen above once a month, nor their faces above once a year ." Doubting this astonishing statement, I consulted another authority, who declares that "owing to a superstitious desire to retain their christening, they never washed their faces at all." What a field for some thorough Baptist evangelist! Want and hunger were added to complete the squalor. Famine and plague were fearfully frequent visitors. Superstition mingled with the administration of law and made justice uncertain. Such is a picture, not overdrawn, of the general condition of European society a few hundred years ago. Poverty, ignorance, superstition, oppression, degradation on the one hand; wealth, power, fashion, luxury, ambition on the other, and no prevailing sense of obligation from the latter toward the former-no wide-spread sympathy for the sufl"ering, no general movement for their elevation.

I have not time even to trace briefly the • agencies by which these masses began, and have continued to move toward the rights and franchises of manhood. · The first signs of the new life appear to have been in the towns, where trade, manufacture, and skill began to awaken the mind , and suggest the possibilities and value of manhood itself. They brought men of different localities together, and . knowledge grew by interchange of ideas and commodities. Here the spell of caste and

domination could not fail to be rudely broken. Here the serf's twelve - m o nth r esidence m a de him a fr ee man Growing wealth and e x tending relations made th e good-will of the towns nece s sary even to king s. In 12 r 5 En g land recognizes and gaurantees the right s of the comm o n p eople, a factor ne ve r before acknowledged. A little l a ter knights first , a nd th e n burgesses, are ca lled to con sider what help they wi·ll grant th e king in his military enterpri ses The House of Commons has come int o being. Meanwhile C a mbridge and Oxford are gathering the young men to their halls of learning, and are sending out such great, brave men as Wyclif, under whose teachings came th e greatest of mental awa kenin gs Thirty thousand students at Oxford in the earl y part of the fourteenth century tell s the story of the advance movement. Every alchemist or chemist, with his crucible ; e ve ry inventor giving a better and more economical use of power; every navigator who brought back news from freshly-discovered shores ; every thinker who investigated, and every poet who sang, became a part of the upward and forward -pressing energy which helped manhood toward its birthrightinheritance of knowledge and fraternal recognition.

I ask you to consider with me another phase of this great movement,

II THE CONQ..UEST OF MAN OVER NATURE.

Here the first glance reveals to us a scene of exceeding interest. Nature and man pitted against each other in a contest which six thousand years have scarcely more than begun. She marshall s all her forces \ against him, attacks him with storms and waves, and fro s ts a nd fire s . She besieges him with winters , and cuts off his s upplies by famine, mildews, drought s and blights. Anon, she drown5 his fi e ld s by flood s, and prostrates his dwelling s by earthquakes and tornadoe s . She sends locu s ts against his crops, murrain to destroy hi s cattle, and every form of di sease

and pestilence against him self to sweep him to hi s g rav e . She hid es her treasures from him with a ll cunning tricks of concealment. S h e disgui ses her metals with dr oss, l o ck s them up in the heart of the rocks, buries them under ma ss ive mount a in s. S h e hi des h er coal and oil deep und erground, pl aces her timber in inacc e sible f orests, and h er marble in di sta nt quarries. S h e obstructs his path by ru bing rivers, and towering mountains. She p o isons the air with malaria, and populates the fores t s w ith savage beasts. She threatens a nd appals him by the limitle ss and tumultuou s sea which ho wls and sobs, in ever-changeful mood , along the beach. She hed ges him in by the wilderness and de se rt on the right h a nd and on the left, and everywhere llnd in all ways she obstructs, waylay s and defie s him .

He come s n aked and alone to the conflict, but he brings brain , speec h and hand, th os e three great giants that are more than a match for " all her oppo si tion . By these he is sure to c o nqu er. Here his labor is three -fold: He must l earn to recognize truth when he sees it, master the secrets of nature by hi s s ci ence, and harness her forces to his enterpri se by art. . His first great ta s k is

To recogni ze the truth when he meets it. He is che ated by appearances on every hand. He continually mistakes coincident s for cau ses . Fact s and fancies throng him in ine x t ricable confusion, o that he is unable t o distinguish between them. Rumor s and stor ies of what has been mislead him wi th false history of what has been , and incomprehensible phenomena fri gh ten him with groundless apprehensions of what may be. His imag ination weaves into fanta stic associations the movement o f the planet s and the course of his life until he co un ts hi s failures " ill-starred" efforts. F ortune, fame , hope, destiny have named th emselves "a star." The flight of birds, th e a pp earance of a comet, a falling mete o r , a serpent or wolf crossing our path ha ve each their por-

tentous significance in relation to human life.

/ When we consider the mass of fables which were given out as sober facts, it is a wonder that history ever became possible. Charlemagne undertakes the conquest of Spa in by the personal advice of the Apostle James, and conducts the war under his personal supervision. The walls of Pamplona tremble and fall before the praying army of invaders. Giants appear who are invincible by the sword, but are overcome by notable knights in theological duel, and put to death on being defeated. So high an authority as the archdeacon of Oxford writes in his chronicles, that it rained blood incessantly for three days in England. That sea monsters ravaged the coasts devouring many men, and finally swallowed the king himself. That the great king Arthur, among other wonderful exploits, killed a giant in battle who wore a complete and splendid suit made entirely from the beards of the kings he had slain.

An account appears which satisfactorily explains the origin of the custom of" kissing the Pope's toe." The author, a trusted historian, says: It was formerly customary to kiss the hand of his holiness, but once a beautiful and presuming woman (alas, that a beautiful woman should ever be presumptuous) not only kissed but actually pressed with affectionate warmth the extended hand, whereupon the pontiff, with commendable self-abnegation, immediately cut off the hand which had been the cause of offense, and ever after substituted the less susceptible toe for the osculatory demonstrations of his devout children. The proof ought to have been satisfactory, for the writer says that in his day, full five hundred years after the event, the hand was still to be seen, miraculously preserved, in St. John's Lateran Church at Rome. And these fables, idle as nursery tales of ghosts and witches, were written down as unquestioned history by the most enlightened minds of the day.

Morbid and unlimited credulity prepared the way for all manner of impositions. The superstitious fears which may in our day be found among forest savages or the most ignorant negroes, held sway four hundred years ago over the most of the better and more intelligent classes of European society. Lord Bacon himself, in his day, was a firm believer in astrology. In I 524 an eminent astronomer threw all Europe into consternation by announcing the astrological prediction that the world was to be destroyed by a flood before the end of the year. Court officers besought the Emperor Charles V. to have a survey made and the highest mountains determined and named as places of refuge. People in the low lands fled to the hills, . abandoning their homes. A university professor recommended his fellow-townsmen to build an ark, which they did.

The report that ,a child in Silesia had a golden tooth growing in its mouth was investigated and confirmed by · civil authorities, and professional men gave scientific explanations of the phenomena. It was found that the sun and Saturn were in conjunction in the sign of Aries at the moment of the child's birth, and that the auriferous tooth was no dreadful thing, but, quite to the contrary, it portended the coming of the "golden age."

In this age of illus.ions and uncertainty the obscure and difficult field of medicine furnished many illustrations of prevailing mental characteristics. Some of the most eminent men of the profession connected with their practice the miracl«;! and charm-cure theories. A prescription for the bite of a rabid dog directs that a diagram of the animal be made as speedily and accurately as possible after the accident, and that the patient chew and swallow the diagram without delay. I have never seen the remedy tried, but if it won't cure the bite of a mad dog, I am sure I don't know what will. Alchemy and astrology were the natural colleagues with medicine in its crude condition.

Wonderful correspondences were s uppo se d t o s ub sis t betw ee n the seve n kn ow n planets, th e seve n known metals, and the seven days of the week. Th e three orders were ·asso ciated together . The s un , go ld, and Sunday; the m oo n , sil ver, a nd Monday, etc., were thought t o be m ys t e riously r e lated The planets ruled th e h o ur s by turn. As the do g -star, Sirius, rose t owards the zenith, the Nile ove rfl owed it s bank s, and the Egy ptian s h a iled it as the cause of the life -giving flood .

Insane people r ave d mor e in th e li g ht than in th e dark of the m oo n , and we r e called lunatics . No wond e r the re was general dread of being moon-struck.

The idea of a soul in each varying form of matter is a ve r y ancient one , and wonderfully influenced human th o u g ht and conduct. The planets , di s tt-ibuted through s pace , a cc o rding t o musical distances, went singing in wondrous harm o ny o n their way, se nding out through the universe the mu sic of the spheres, which we, unfortunately , can not notice, becau se we have always h a d it in our ears- ju s t as the miller d oes not observe the noi se of the mill, becau se he hears it all the tim e

The so ul s of men were s parks fr o m the so ul of natur e, which, once being in se parate existence, never lost their identity. Ind eed, the motes which floated in the s unb ea m s, were s upposed by some to b e nothin g else th an disembodied hum a n sp irit s -a fa ncy which would suggest that there we re so m e as sma ll- so ul ed men in an ci ent as in modern time s.

From this id ea of soul in matt e r came the u se o f amu let s a nd ch a rm s , th e weare r believing that the s pirit of the ch a rm he wore would drive off di seases and protect him from un see n d angers.

Upon this idea how eagerly and enthusiastic a ll y the old a lchemi s t s wrought in s earch of the fo rce s, whose control was to give them s uperhuman p pwe r. H ow th ey battled for mastery with the m y riad s pirit s of nature. Substances clo se ly impri so ned in vessels, when tormented with fir e, bur s t

them asunder with l o ud noise; what was thi s but the so ul of the impri so ned matter tortured t o de s tructive madne ss ? In visible vapors could be "materialized" into so lid s, as successfully as the operations of a modern materializin g medium. Bright precipit a te s were deposited from colorless liquid s . Substanc es cru s hed in mortars l eaped forth in fir e uttering a loud cry. Wh a t was t his but the so ul of matter in rage a nd pain?

Th e alchemist belie ved he was separatin g the sou l and body of matter by the fire o f hi s crucible , and capturing the spirits in hi s r e tort , which he carefu ll y bottled up for future u se. To him the term "sp irit s " -a s applied to ammonia, and c a mph or, and ether, and turpentine, and nitre and wine-wa s no accommodated term , but a thin g of li teral meaning. His bottles and she l ves were full of li ving being s, ready to save him in any battle he might h ave to fight with diseases or devil s .

To him th e earth seemed a great livin g creature , breathing thr o u gh her caYes as through so many great mouths; her river s and s prin gs a vast circulating system; h er ve in s of metals and precious stones, of marbl e and coal and salt , secretion s of her vast but sluggish life, prodtrced by some unkn own proce ss of terrestrial digestion. A quicker proces of life, because it h ad more of the great lifestimulus-heat-was that which was s hown in foliage and fruits, in flowers and g rain Nature that n ever hurried becau se all yea r s belonged to h er, cou ld devote ages to th e proce sses by which her mo s t precious product s were developedher gold and silver and pr ecious s tone s.

But m a n 's brief li fe did not permit him to wait. As h eat q ui ckened all things, wh y could he not discov er h er proce s es, and so ha ste n th em under the fires of his crucibles that in an hour he might turn the baser substances into gold o r more common rock into diamond s?

Still further he pressed his observati ons

and his theories. Some liquid s which he discovered had power to a lleviate or subdue pain; why could not discover one which could conquer a ll pain? Some gave the weak more strength; why not find one to overcome all weakness? Some seemed to beat back death for an hour or a day; why could he not find an 'elixir which would always baffle him, and thus bestow upon mankind unending life? Grand dreams were these of the old toilers in the realm of physical mysteries, who labored not in vain

Long, indeed, did earnest men seek to know the truth when they stood face to face with her. Loved her, though they only obtained g limp ses of her beauty at long intervals.

Bruno-burning at the stake in r6oo, because he' saw and declared truths concerning the solar system to others unknown, and dared to believe that intelligent creatures of God trod other worlds than ours, with the true martyr spirit saying quietly to his jud ges: "Perhaps it will be with greater fear that ye pass this sentence upon me than I receive it " -i s the type of the brave, true men who have been leaders in the pilgrimage toward the "Land of Promise." He was an illustrious one of many. "The dungeon, the stake, and the fagot have been too often the world's market-price for the best wisdom ."

History, art, science; in ·all these have men made wonderful progress. I will not tax your patience to-night to recount the struggles, to enumerate the trophies, nor to catalogue the h osts of illustrious le aders in this onward march.

Franklin and Hall have given their li ves that they might fling the light of their lanterns farther into the darkness that envelops the icy pole. Livingston has paid the same great price for a deeper look into the dark continent. Scholar, sc ienti st, historian, minister, lawyer, teacher, physician, inventor, and how many others have well fulfilled the mission in life by the help they have given their fellowmen.

Whoever discovers a truth, or a law, or a relation before unknown, a remedy for the body, or a tonic for the sou l , a better way of living, or a relief for any sorrow, may justly claim his place in the glorious army.

In every path of life, in every industrial pursuit and professional walk, there are truths to discover, harmonies to reveal, hefps to be brought, work to be done for our fellow-men.

As souls in high fraternity, as men whose eyes in good have been opened, as lovers of God and man, let us honor o ur fraternity by our fidelity to all that lifts man upward and helps him forward.

BETA THETA PI, A NATIONAL FRATERNITY.

Response by Wyllys C Ransom.

BROTHERS IN BET A THETA PI-Were there no greater reason for self-congratulation on my part, it would be a ll- sufficient that I am permitted to be present at this auspicious hour. To lo ok again upon the beaming faces I before have greeted, and once more to feel the warm pressure of the hands I have so often in fraternal salutations clasped. To meet, and know those until a few hours s inc e strangers in all save those close relations that spring from the fraternal ties of our mystic

brotherhood, and yet on the morrow to part with them as reluctantly, as regretfully, as though our friendship had been cemented by the association of long and eventful years. But we have met together under circumstances of more than ordinary interest. For the first time in the history of our grand old fraternity its annual convention assembles on the field which for so l ong a time seemed walled against its successful advance Here, in the va lley of the historic Hudson, a lm ost

under the shadow of the green and granite hills of old New England, by the s ide of the bright waters given for the "healing of the nations ," we are met in fraternal re-union to rejoice together over the splendid advance that Beta Th e ta Pi h as made in the recent past, and to make out for her, if possible, a still more brilliant progress in the near future. This year we come not from the far-away prairies of the teeming We s t alone ; nor yet from the beautiful valley of the Ohio; nor from the plains of sunny south land, nor from the blue ranges of the Old Dominion, as the sole empire where our revered Wooglin holds hi s gentle sway. For with us to -day are present fraters from five flourishing chapters of the Empire State. The Beta banners, so long furled at Harvard and Brown, have been again thrown exultingly upon the breeze. Boston and Maine State are m a rching in the column. The Jersey Blues from Stevens and Rutgers are keeping s tep to Gemma J\Tostra , while Carlisle and Philadelphia chant the evening hymn to the canine, with melodious measure and voices· well attuned. From the GolJen Gate of the Pacific, Omega returns the sentiment responsive to the spirit of the hap py occasion:

"No pent-up Utica contracts your powers, I But the whole boundless continent is yours," a consummation long dela yed but ever hoped for, if not foreseen, by those who h ave for nearly fifty years kept "watch and ward" at the shrine of W ooglin. And, scattered all over the land the thought s of many a brother who se home of life is far " ayent the twae," and who could not be <_>ne of the joyous gathering about the festive board here to-night, will be turned toward Saratoga, freighted with much of s!l me sentiment that inspired the glowmg lmes ofi the p salmist:

"How beauteous are their feet

Who stan d on Zion's Hill

Who bring ho sa nn as on their tonaues

And words of pea ce rev ea l." "'

As mea s ured on the scale of time half century is not a long period, but the live s of men ,_ as it makes up the rec ord of their acmevements. Even with those whose years are bounteously lengtho':t to the three- score and ten the mexpenence of youth and the feebleness of age_must be discounted from the sum of their opportunities. But if life is short

and time is fleeting, the march of events keeps up with rapid pace, and the changes incid ent to half a century of human existence are, in the present condition of the world 's progre ss, as beneficent as wonderful. And the changes affect the creations of men not le ss than the men them se lves; and perh a p s we can find no mor e complete demonstration of that fact than in the hi s tory of the fraternity now become, as we with pride claim to be, one of the institution s of this land.

It is almost fifty years since our founder, at an obscure institution, then located, it might almost be said, on the frontier of civilization, organized the fraternity of B 8 ll. Seven years before A .d rP, now among the strongest and best of college fraternites, had been founded at Hamilton College, and the light of the crescent anJ star soon beamed across the threshold of old Miami. Among those invited to hecome votaries at its shrine were J. Riley Knox and, with one or ·two exception s, the others of the founders of our Alpha chapter. But, with the independence and determination characteristic of western frontier s men , Knox and associates declined the proffered honor and soon after proceeded to organize what, as he expressed it, should be a true fraternity , where not only mutual aid with devotion to the cultivation of the should be encouraged, but that Implicit faith and confidence in one another requisite from those admitted to the new society, should be the rulinofeature in it s policy. And i it not that thi s principle , as illu s trated in the manifested by the Beta a lumm to _our b_el?ved fraternity to their latest liv es, distinguishes H 8 II from every other college association of the land?

Four years ago Knox attended for the first time in. many years, a of the fraternit y of which he was the founder. As he to ok the place of honor assigned him at the head of that brilliant table at the Grand Hotel, at which were seated more than two hunBetas, who, with their wive s, daughtets and sweethearts, had come up to a_ttend the_ session of our annual conventhe mtere st and surpri se apparen t m his features t?ld more e loquent ly than words the and gratification that him m that supreme hour. Was this _mdeed. the outcome of that little meetmg whtch he and Dav e Linton and

Charlie Hardin h a d held in an upper chamber of Old Miami about forty years before ? Verily, the faint glimmering of the candle that shed its feeble li g ht upon the little group that had met to organize a secre t society to battle for supremacy with A LJ if! had become a flame th at li ghted all the · sky. What wonderful changes time had wrought s ince '39 ! Then the now great metropolis of the Buckeye State, with its population of over a quarter of a million, was hardly more than a frontier market town. The tide of emigration setting in that direction had only just begun the work of wresting the vast wilderness of the northwest from the rule and solitude of aboriginal barbarism and erecting the fabric of those powerful states, now the peers of any in the Union. The empire to the west of the Mississippi was an unreclaimed waste of lonely prairie and lofty mountains, undisturbed by the approaches of civilization , and California was a faroff, almost mythical, land, its golden treasures undreamed of, and still hidden in the sands at the foot of the snow-clad Sierras. It was five years after that eventful meeting at Miami before Morse gave the electric telegraph to the world; but now its wires were in the depths of every ocean and across the borders of every land, carrying the mysterious pulsations that tell how the heart of trade and social life is beating at the commercial centers of the globe. The locomotive had then hardly ceased to be more than a plaything in the hands of sanguine inventors; now the lines of steel, threading even the mountain tops, opened the avenue of travel and traffic from the Atlantic to the distant Oregon. Nor had the intervening years marked le ss wonderful changes in the political world. The map of Europe had been reconstructed. Jap a n, for more than two hundred years a sealed oracle to the people of other n a tions , had been compelled to surrender her exclusiveness to the aggressive of American enterprise, and not a few of her children were in ·American in s titutions of learning, grappling with the problems in the arts and sciences, and the theories of political and domestic economy, and plans of governmental polity that would, in the fulness of the:years, be grafted on to the antiquated and imperfect systems of their native land, and give it in due season the ripened fruit of a ' Christian

and prosperous civilization. Not then had been heard even the distant mutterings of the thunders of that terrific storm that twenty years later burst with such tremendous fury upon th e states of the American Union, c ar rying death and devastation before ir on its destructive career. But it had come and gone, and nothing remained to remind of its presence save the thousands of turf-covered mounds beneath which was ripening all that was mortal of valiant men who died to vindicate, as seemed to them, the right. In the azure of heaven the national colors still floated, with not a stripe obliterated and with every star undimmed, eloquent of that" lib!'!rty, fraternity and equality" which a reconciled people will more than ever prize as · the priceless heritage left them by their fathers.

And, through all these eventful years, how fared it with the fraternity of the "diamond and stars ? " Had it for a time eked out a sickly existence, and then disa ppeared from the record of terrestrial things ? Or had it successfully breasted the reverses and discomfitures incident to its early history; outlived the vigorous resi sta nce opposed to its extension by the older and powerful fraternities of the east; struggling valiantly on during the fateful period of the war, with a majority of its chapters closed, a nd those still clinging to their colors hesitating between doubts and fears, to meet at the supreme moment of these misfortunes trea so n in the guise of a proposition from two of its oldest chapter s to expire without even the odor of sa nctity , and to invite an old and rival fraternity to administer on its estate? Yes, old JJ e [J had ri se n superior to experiences such as these. She had come through the tryi ng ordeal to rejoice in a new and assured prosperity ; a nd , on that memorable occasion to which I have alluded, she celebrated not only the adoption of a constitution th a t rai sed her to a prominent position in the good opin. ion of those entrusted with the care and control of the best educational establishment of the land, but also the consummation of that honorable union which brought the sons of A 1: X as willing members into the Beta household. V\r ell might our esteemed founder, in the inspiration of the moment, voice the pride he felt in the imposing structure of which his own h a nd had la id the corner-stone. And let u s here to - night uni.te in kind re-

membrances and messages of regard to the survivors of that Grec1an group who first lighted our altar-fires at old Miami, and inscribed on the banners of AI "W ooglin for a thousand years "

But I am admonished that a n old Stiver gray is wearying yol:l in the asm aroused by the sentiment;. to wh1ch you have called upon · him to respond, and I must hasten to the clo se . Beta Theta Pi, from the few tried spirits th.at in the first years of its history kept Jts interest and fortunes under their watchful care, now numbers on its rolls more than five thousand members. The seven or eicrht chapters, located at institutions just tl1en, like the fraternity, · setting out upon their careers, rich in hopes but limited in resources, have become fortythree, nearly all at universities and · colleges whose success and permanence have long since been assured, and who ' alike honor and are honored by the presence of our fraternity within their educational halls. The prejudices and opposition on the part of faculties and the governing boards of collegiate institutions, which for so many years were a formidable obstacle in the way of the fraternity, have disappeared before the broad, conservative, manly and loyal policy enforced by the provisions of its no longer secret constitution. How splendidly has the outcome of that departure vindicated the prophecies of those that inaugurated it ; and is it too much to say that, liberated from the toils of narrow and utterly mistaken methods of management, JJ fJ II now marches proudly at the head of the column, in the direction of the Pan-Hellenic Council and the burial of all those unfortunate if 11:o t disreputable practices and boyish feuds that for so long a time brought reproach upon the Greek fraternities. And while it is alike honorable and honest that we concede to our rivals all to which their able memberships and enviable records entitle them, still it will ever remain an uncontrovertible fact that B e II was the first to declare her independence of the unfair and shameless methods by which for long years the honors and appointments at many of our collegiate institutions were distributed, and for which the secret societies were held as largely responsible. Her repudiation of these pernicious methods, though perhaps tempo-

rarily resulting in a denial to her membership of laurels to which they were justly entitled, will in the end be fully vindicated, and ever redound to her magnanimity and sense of fair, imparti a l justice toward s all those with whom her members may meet in honorable rivalry for scholastic honors.

It would seem perhaps more decorous to permit one without the pale of the fraternity to speak of the character of its membership , of tho>e qualities of head and heart that h ave secured for it distinguished con s ideration in connection with every department of civil, religious and political life throu g hout our land . But, in our claim for the national character of our fraternity, it is no violation of a becoming modesty that we allude to the long list of distinguished men whose names are borne on the rolls of B fJ II. Some of them have pas sed from the scene of their earthly labors and joined the ranks of the majority that gather on the s hores of the eternal world, while othel's are st ill spared in the zenith of their renown and usefulness, to give lustre to their country's history, and unfading splendor to the structures which their able hands have helped to rear. Among the former were Oliver P. Morton, of Alpha, whose brilliant career as th e executive of Indiana a nd in the forum of the national senate has illustrated the best type of American statesmanship, and l eft for him a name tl;lat will be handed down, bright and honored, to the latest posterity; ex- U.S. Senator Milton S. Latham , of Beta , another of our early fraters who was honored with the highest political positions in the gift of his fellow-citizens, and who to his latest life cherished undiminished regard !or t.he fratet:nity that had so near a place 111 hts heart 111 the warm attachments of his earlier years; Professors Larrabee and N utt, of Delta, great men and educators profound thinkers, whose abilities and geni_us left th.eir lasting impress upon the wtth which they were so long tdenttfiecl, and upon the educational systems of the great West, to the buildingup of which they gave the earne t efforts of their lives ; the Ron. Samuel Hamilton Buskirk, of Pi, whose learnincr and legal acquirements · won for hi; the highest judicial position of his state and honored those who invested him witi1 the not less than t?ey him by his elevatwn to the htgh duties and dignities of

the bench. These are but a few of our distinguished fraters, selected from the long list of those who have made the "dread exchange," and whose memories Betas will ever delight to honor.

It is not, perhaps, fitting that panegyrics for the living should follow eulogies upon the dead, but I am sure that I shall do no violence to the proprieties of the occasion in alluding to the triumvirate of Betas who are seated upon the supreme bench of the United States, to V o01·hees and McDonald , Booth, McDill and Harlan-senators, who, in the fearless and faithful discharge of duty, have ever challenged the confidence and admiration of the constituents who placed such important interests in their charge. Nor should I forget to mention Hardin, Crittenden, Nance and Porter , who as the chief executives of their states have added to the high official distinction by members of our fraternity in the political history of the country. In every department of industry, in the learned professions, in the promotion of arts and sciences, in the advancement of education, and in every land where civilization has gained, or is struggling for a foothold, may be found the sons of W ooglin, the "first among their equals," illustrating in their lives and endeavors the principles inculcated by the ethics of this grand old fraternity.

Not greater honors in the forum than in the fielJ have distinguished our membership. When the estrangements between the great sections of the Union invalved our people in the terrible carnage of civil war, on either side, as the convictions of duty led them, our brothers went out manfully, heroically, to reap the fullest measure of glory and the bloodiest harvest of death; many bearing the in-. signia of high official station; many more only soldiers of the rank and file, but all alike moved by the inspiration of the highest patriotism and a faith that knew no faltering in the justice of their cause. Foes to each other as they fought and fell under the folds of the standard that floated over them, but friends and brothers when the talismanic "wreath and stars" claimed for the unfortunate pris'oners, or the unburied dead, those kindly offices that fealty to our sacred obligations will never remind us of in vain. Far away from home, friends, and the endeared scenes of earlier years, ruany a brother

fills an unmarked soldier's grave, which, as recurring springtide with vernal beauty comes, loving, if stranger, hands deck with fairest flowers- ·

"Under the sod and the dew Waiting the judgment day, Under the roses the blue Under the

lilie s the gray."

But if we may indeed congratulate ourselves in view of the record already made by the fraternity, the po s ibilities have not as yet been the half part realized. The methods and policies inaugurated during the past ten years must still be improved and enlarged to keep pace with the growth of our affairs. Our magazine, the pioneer in publications of its class, has been already lifted from its small Beginning to a position of respectable prominence, but much yet remainsto be accomplished before it will reach the standard to which we all desire to· have it attain. The best thoughts of our alumni should be contributed to its columns, and the undergraduates, who must be relied upon for matters of college and chapter news of current interest, should spare no effort to avoid the littleness of pique and prejudice and give quiet dignity to all articles appearing from their pens. These results are to flow mainly from the efforts of you who have within recent years entered the charmed circle of B e fl. One by one, those of us who already begin to catch faint glimpses· of the sunset, that will soon, in mellowed radiance, place its imprint upon the western sky, and who have for so long a time greeted you at these annual meetings, will fail to fill our accustomed places, and you, in turn, will have become "silver grays," whom the younger brothers so delight to honor.

Ah! the mute monitor of the years that glide away and bring us from the halo of the morning to the twilight of the evening, while we are hardly conscious of the passing hour. It whispers in our eager, listening ears blissful memories of the ever-receding past and words of quiet reminder of a thousand joyous things, in the swift whirl of time and change almost forgotten. We cannot, if we would, thrust from our consciousness the lesson that it teaches; for even if we could, are not the "silver threads and the keepers of the house that trembles" already present to remind us that we are mortal, and all that we have re-

THE FUTURE OF THE FRATERNITY.

maining here is but tr a nsitory and evanescent as a summer cloud?

" To-day's most trivial act m ay hold the seed Of future fruitfulness or luture d eart h . Oh ! cherish ev e ry word a nd deed-

The simp le st record of th ys elf ha s worth.

" If thou hast slighted on e o ld thought , Beware lest gri e f e n for ce the tru t h at l as t; Th e time must come wh e rein thou s h a l t be tau ght

The value and the be a uty of the pa s t ."

THE FUTURE OF THE FRAT ERNITY.

Response by Sylvester G. Willi ams

MR PRESIDENT AND BROTHER BETAS working o u t an ad ju stment that will erve -This is a formative period in the history th e purp oses of the future. of American institutions. The set tlem ent of the country is still in It is a formativ e period as to o ur law s its f o rm at i ve period, and the geographical There is a want of uniformity between distributi o n of the people is yet largely unthe Jaws of the seve ral states, a nd in a determin ed. general view ?f t?e juri s prudence of. the In a ll th ese things, and in others, we country there IS d1scovered an uncertamty that thi s is a formative period as and conflict that is only slowly giving way to the character of th e American people. to a more harmonious and se ttled sys tem. That Am erica is t o be the theater for the

It is a formative period as to our habits amalgamati o n of the races is a lmo s t a and ways ofliving. Physiologically speak- prophetic axiom, and from the heteroing, the habit s of Amer ' can life are as yet gen eo u s elements which now compose the to a great extent unformed. We live population of th e country, and which are irregularly, intemperately, and as a nation constantl y pourin g in , there is being deare only beginners in the study of the laws veloped a h omogeneous and typical Amerof health and of healthful living. can people , with unifo rm and p ec uli ar in-

It is a formative period as to the religion stitution s, cust oms a nd l aws of the country. Beyond any other n a tion, The lead e r s of this people, the directors we have divers creeds and beliefs, numerous denominations and sects. But of the th o u g ht and ac ti on of this race, C mu s t of nec ess it y be th ose in whom are Chri s tian and anti- hristian , athei s t, Jew mo s t deepl y instilled the principles which and agnostic, heretofore engaged in the are to form the basis of the n at i o n a l ch a rdivertisements of continuous controversy, are unconsciou s ly approaching a common acter and life. It is to our colleges and f uni ve r siti es, the nurseries of the brain and basis of religious action, i not of religious belief. of the h ear t , as we ll a s of the arm and

It is a formative period as to our litera- hand , that we mu s t l ook for th e formation ture. The motive and voice which create of the chara cter of th e typical American, and make characteristic the literature of a the s cholar, the ge ntl ema n , the thinker, the act o r. people are with us but slowly developing from the variety of our literary world. Poetic art poises uncertain between the clas sic pa s t and the coming era of the literature and poetry of science.

In politic s, the formation of new issues and new partie s is close upon us, and ere many years new adaptations mu s t a ppear even in our sys tem of government, to meet the g rowing and new demands of a developing p eop le

It is a formative period as to o-ur busine ss rel a tion s. Our indu s tries a re of g iga ntic growth; but their project o rs are o nl y learnin g the laws of supply a nd demand. Labor and capital a re solving the problem of their equivalence, and s triking o p era tors and gra sping monopolie s are

I know of no f orm or p h ase of American life, s prin g in g directly from our colleges, so full of sp le ndid p ossibilit ies as the college fraternity. It is an institution peculiar to America. It s mission is to unite in a comm o n fellowship, in the cultivation of common tastes and sympat hies, the best elements of our college soc iety , and extendin g further , to create a bond of union between th e thinking a nd act ing men of the country, in whom may be found the real gen iu s of Ame ri can citizenship.

Enga&'e.d in the of the hi g he s t quahhe s of mmd and heart, a nd in animating it s m embe r s w ith lofty purposes and ide a ls, it has w ithin itself the

promise and potency of a vi gorous and enduring growth

In Beta Theta Pi, my brothers, ·there resides in peculiar measure the elements of future greatness and power. No other college fraternity has touched the boundaries to which we have attained, nor has any made more rapid progress in the work which it is our mission to perform· .

We are to-day nationalizing the American intellect; we are breaking down the barriers between eastern and western life; we are uniting in the pursuit of common purposes the educated and cultured minds of every section; we are bringing into daily contact and comparison the educational systems and methods of all parts of the country, and are rapidly though insensibly creating a uniform standard of scholarship and social culture between hitherto divided sections As the true objects and the drift of fraternity life become apparrent, there will be developed more and more that intelligent interest and devotion to the work which is already so widespread and manifest.

The future work of the fraternity can in no wise be restricted to 'the student life of our colleges. There, indeed, must the foundation be laid in the lives of all its members; but the. superstructure will be builded later by those who have gone forth into the broader fields of life and labor.

We have in Beta Theta Pi a medium through which a great and growing body of coilege-bred men are almost compelled to keep alive their interest in our colleges and universities, maintaining an intimate relation between the alumni and the students; and, while the organization under which we exist is exercising a constant surveillance over the chapters from which the ranks of the fraternity are to be filled, it exerts at the same time a direct and positive influence upon · the instruction and discipline of the colleges themselves.

Seeking a broader knowledge of the subjects into which a college education gives but an entrance, if carried to its legitimate end, the work of such an association may be made an advance step in the educational system of our country.

In the words of a recent writer: "The work of Beta Theta Pi is to advance the

interests of the institutions with which her chapters are connected, to assist by all honorable means in the elevation of the standard of collegiate instruction, to afford to the student who finds a home beneath the kindly influences of the fraternity every encouragement to attain a lofty ideal in the world of letters and in literary and scholarly associations. The fraternity professes no religious creed; it adheres to no political party; its ideals are those of loyalty to good faith, of the highest order of manly virtues, of the broadest intellectual culture; and, being purely American, its devotion is to American institutions and interests and to the elevation of the standard of American social and intellectual living. To everything that may contribute to the buildingup of an enlightened and intellectual people the American collegian owes his allegiance. To every combined effort that may forward the best interests of cultured American society the members of Beta Theta Pi are bound."

With such objects and such a field of labor, it needs no prophet to foretell the splendid course we have yet to run

.<Eneas, Virgil tells us, as he entered upon the conquest of that land which was to be the inheritance of his posterity, received from his goddess mother arms and a shield fashioned by the hand of Vulcan. Strange and wonderful devices stood forth upon the shield. Emblazoned in changeful and living symbols, there appeared, leading down through the series of eventful years, all the history of the Roman people. Ignorant of their meaning, the father of the race marveled at the vision, little thinking that upon his shoulders he carried the fame and fate of posterity .

Upon the shield, my brothers, which you wear to-night there appear the beautiful and mystic symbols of our brotherhood. While their meaning as emblems of our fraternity are known and cherished by you all, be not unmindful of the broader sense in which these characters may be read. You, too, my brothers, carry with you, in these strange and beautiful designs, the future history, the fame and the fate of poste'rity.

THE minutes of the convention are in the hands of the secretary, by whom they will be published.

A NUMBER of chapter notes and letters intended for the June paper appear in this issue. They will not seem stale, however, as they contain many points of as much present interest concerning the chapters as when they were written.

THE respunses at the Saratoga banquet of brothers Alling, Thruston and Knox, and the interspersions of toast-master \Villis 0. Robb, not having been preserved by paper and pen, do not appear in print. We regret that we can not reproduce all the bright and happy impromptu speeches that helped to make the convention an intellectual and social treat. Those folks who stay at home need not expect to reap all the enjoyment of a convention from the pages of the BETA THETA PI. The only way to do is to go on the ground, eat, drink, listen, and be satisfied.

IF ANYBODY has been laborinO' under the impression that the fraternity bof Beta Theta Pi has been engaged in an effort to get into New England by what-meansso ever, the mind of such person will readily be disabused when he considers the action of this fratemity in refusing a charter to Colby U niversitv after more than two years of persistent effort upon the part of petitioners from that institution. The reasons for refusing this charter need not be here discussed. It is enough to say that, while most of the other eastern fratemities are represented at that institution which has been considered by them good enough for their purposes, Beta Theta Pi has as yet seen no reason for planting a chapter there , although the effort to induce the fraternity to do so has been unremitting. Conservatism is no less observable in our eastern development than it is in the west. The Amherst charter was the only one granted by the convention at Saratoga.

IT rs feared that some expectations as to the new BETA THETA Pr will be disappointed. Judgin g from the tone of the June semi-annuals which accredit the enterprise with a magnitude which we are not modest in assuming to have been exaggerated, it has been expected that the new volume would sta rt out a veritable model in all that pertains to the art journalistic. We are at least too modest and too fond of the truth to boast upon the face of our magazine of its superior m er its. It has been but a slight acknowledgment, on the part of ' the management of the new and increasing dem a nd s for improvem ent in fraternity j o urnali sm, that has induced the present change All th at we ask is continued encouragement and indulgence on the part of the fraternity, and the effort to improve and please will be c ont inued until the BETA THETA Pr reaches the point of excellence so much de si red.

THE Saratoga convention appointed a special committee, Messrs. Robb, Baird and William s, to repr ese nt Beta Theta Pi at the Pan-Hellenic Conference, July 4th, r884 . . The propo sed conference has been the subject. of mor e discussion through the fratermty press than any other topic that has been introduced since the system of exchanges ha s heen in vogue a m o n g the fraternitie s. We believe it was first suggested by th e BETA THETA P1; but it was only a suggestion. It was not intended.as a Beta Theta Pi project, and the fratem1ty does not arrogate anythinO' on this account. As a project it belon.;'s to those who advocate it, and as suchbit is to large and respectable maJOnty of Amencan college fraternities.

Bet.a. Theta Pi will take part in it, as prom1sm?; a and intere sti ng feature of fraternity life, and not because the fraternity has need of sympathy from other fratermtJes . We do not fear any reproach upon this oTound nor do we • • b

It J.?OSSible that any fraternity, by part 111 the conference, would commit 1tself to a policy of this kind. Such a

notion has been absurdly advanced, and one or two fraternities have hastened to declare that, for fear they might be considered as seeking support from the st'ronger associations, they will have no part in the affair at all. The thought would not have occurred to a fraternity which did not in some way feel its own deficiency, unless it were possessed of a churlish spirit, or, at least, were devoid of all catholicity in its ideas of fraternity politics.

The anxiety on the part of Chi Phi lest it might be charged with such a motive led that society to precipitate itself into a state of morbid uneasiness, from which it only partially relieved itself by avowing that when the conference met it would not be there. It is well that Chi Phi made this announcement in due form and season, otherwise the conference might have come and gone and the fact of this absence never have been discovered.

The reasons for and against the conference have been freely advanced through

the columns of our several exchanges. The actual work that such a meeting will perform must be nothing compared with the sentiment it is bound to create, and the knowledge that will be gained of the personal character of the several fraternities , as it is presumed the fraternities will have their representative men present. It is more the desire to see what such a conference can do, and what the character of the assembly will be than any fond hope of great and beneficent results that may spring from its labors, that will induce many to be present. Whatever may be its outcome, it will be an interesting and novel affair, and will mark a period in the history of college fraternities. The magnitude of the fraternity. system has drawn into the field of active fraternity work many of the most intelligent and enterprising of our American collegians; and, as a genuine treat in the way of a fraternity meeting, this will doubtless prove the richest that has ever been known.

NEW OFFICERS.

The election of Judge P. Emery Aldrich, of Worcester, Mass., to membership in the beard of directors, was a happy hit on the part of the convention. Next to the establishment of chapters in New England colleges, this recognition naturally follows in the line of our eastern growth. It forms another strong element of unity within the fraternity, and identifies Beta Theta Pi with New England as never before. Judge Aldrich is an enthusiastic Beta. He is one of those who ride long distances, of dark, cold nights, to attend meetings of his college chapter. This is the account we have of him from the Harvard boys, who have been the objects of Judge Aldrich's fraternal solicitude and attention since the re-establishment of the chapter.

The catalogue record of Judge Aldrich is as follows:

"Phi Beta Kappa:" Editor of the Barre Patriot/ author of "An Address on Education and the State;" "Criminal Laws of Massachusetts;" "Locke and his Philosophy;" "Influence of America," and other pamphlets and addresses. Member of American Antiquarian Society; trustee of the Worcester County Free Institute of Indu strial Science; delegate to

the Constitutional Convention of Mass achusetts, r853; member of the Massachusetts legislature for two years; district attorney for twelve years; mayor of the city of Worcester; member of the State Board of Health; Judge of the Superior Court of Massachusetts since r873·

William B. Burnet, Esq., of Cincinnati, the newly-elected local member of the board, is a member of the firm of Burnet & Burnet, attorneys. The senior member of the firm is Judge Jacob Burnet, of the old Beta chapter, and an uncle of the new director. W. B. Burnet is a member of Alpha Beta chapter, and was one of the active workers of the chapter in his day, being foremost among those who placed Beta Theta Pi in the Iowa University upon the solid basis which has since been maintained. The fraternity is fortunate in the selection of so zealous and competent an officer

The new Vis itin g Officer of the fraternity is L. C. Hascall, of New York City, a member of Upsilon chapter, and former·ly a resident of Medford, Mass. Brother Hascall is now engaged with a prominent publishing house of New York City, and will travel extensive l y during the coming year through the west. His business will

THE CHAPTERS.

carry him into almost all of the college towns, and will enable him to visit a great many of the chapters during the year. The appointment of Mr. Hascall to this position was not only in recognition of his personal qualifications, but also with the desire of making the office one of active duties instead of the almost nominal duties

which have heretofore attached to it. The chapters may expect the visiting officer to drop upon them at any time, and the fraternity will hear frequent reports and suggestions from thi s new source of information. Mr. Ha scall will also represent the interests of the paper in his travels.

THE CHAPTERS.

WE wANT fifteen carefully-written chapter letters for each issue of the paper hereafter, and make a special request that the best available talent of the chapters be assigned to the preparation of these letters. There is a certain dignity and tone and literary style that may be imparted to a communication of this kind, while at the same time the writer need not aim at anything more than a simple narration of. affairs connected with his chapter and institution. It is asked that the coming year may mark an era in this department.

For the next issue we call for letters from the following chapters: Kappa, Beta Delta, Phi, Alpha Chi, Omicron, Eta, Beta Kappa, Delta , Nu. Beta-Zeta, AlphaAlpha, Alpha Epsilon, Mu, Epsilon, and Chi. It is not understood that letters from other sources will · be rejected; but the columns of our next issue will be especially open to the above chapters. All letters are expected to be in our hands not later than the I8th of October. Correspondents will please assume, for the time being, that our readers know nothing whatever concerning their chapters or institutions with which they ilre connected . Those things that are most familiar to the students of a college, or the members of a chapter, are the most characteristic of that college or chapter. They are not often spoken of because they are so common to those who are in daily contact with them. It is the characteristic things, however, that are interesting to outsiders, and these are the matters we want known to our readers, whom we wish to acquaint with the real character and life of our various colleges.

ALPHA GAMMA held her sixteenth annual reunion with a reception and banquet at the Yellow Springs House, Yellow Springs, Ohio, on the 26th of June. The chapter closed the year with fifteen members.

BETA GAMMA 's la st semi-annual was brief, but full of encouragement for the future of the chapter.

OMEGA entertained over one hundred of Oakland's and San Francisco's fairest ones at lunch on class-day, May 28th.

CoL. AND MRs. P. T. DICKINSON royally entertained Omega chapter and the Beta girls at their beautiful home in Alameda

Guv WILKINSON, Omega '86, took the Early English Text Society's prize. It consists of a number of rare and valuable books

BETA BETA initiated seven men last year. Her members carried off a goodly number of prizes and honors during the term.

No DECEMBER semi-annuals received last yeat from Delta, · Iota, Beta Alph a, Alpha Lambda, Zeta , Alpha Chi, or Gamma. Why?

THE last addition to Omega chapter is John F. Davis, A B ., one of Harvard's honor men. He makes a royal Beta, and the chapter feels justly proud of him.

OMEGA carved a farewell 1Jopr on the evening of June 3d. The pleasure of the occasion was enhanced by the presence of brothers Vandercook, of Alpha Eta, and A. G. Briggs, of Rho.

EPSILON's la s t semi-annual contained the names of eleven members. There were but twenty-se ve n fraternity men, all told, in the institution-seven Sigma Chi's and nine Phi Delta Theta's.

THE university med a l, the highest honor that can be attained by a student in California, was awarded last year to brother Wm. W . Deamer. This medal is valuable aside from the honor that it brings, in that it contains one hundred and twenty-five dollars in gold.

BETA BETA had twelve members at the close of last term. The chapter carried off a number of college honors.

DuRING the term of office of the present cor. sec Omega has sent over sixty letters to the sister chapters, and has received but in return.

PRoVIDENCE ALUMNI met on the rSth of September. A written report upon the convention was prepared by brother A. P. Hoyt and read by brother Thurston.

SIGMA starts the new year with sixteen members, and thinks there is some new material worth having. From present prospects the chapter will number twenty before a great while.

BETA ETA held her fifth annual reunion at the chapter rooms, June z 5th last. An unusually full and pleasing programme of toasts was indulged in. The chapter closed the year with sixteen members.

IN the fall term elections of the Franklin Society of Denison Alpha Eta men secured the vice-president, critic, recording secretary, corresponding secretary, treasurer, an editor of the Collegian, and a few minor appointments.

ALPHA LAMBDA wound up the year '82 - '83 with a membership of eleven. The several fraternities at vV ooster met to take some action on the prep question; but there was an entire lack of unanimity upon the subject. Three chapters voted for the adoption of an anti-prep rule, and three voted against it.

GuY C. EARL's oration on class-day, and W. W. Deamer's effort on commencement, were pronounced by all to be the events of the days. Omega has cause to be very proud of her '83 delegation. At the University of California there were but two male speakers on commencement. Beta Theta Pi was the only fraternity represented

ALPHA CHI, at the close of last year, had an enrollment of sixteen. Ten of these were residents of Baltimore. This looks well for the prospects of the Baltimore alumni chapter. The outlook of the chapter for this year was, according _ to the last semi -annual, very promising. It is to be hoped that the anticipations of the late corresponding secretary are now being fully realized.

WE PUBLISH Lambda's June letter in this issue, as it came too late for the June number. Items of interest only at the commencement season have been omitted Brother Case laid himself out to make up for prior delinquencies, and touches; in an interesting way, upon all salient points of chapter life. We trust, however, that future writers will not concentrate their efforts quite so much at the end of the year: but show up more frequeutly during the winter months

ALPHA ALPHA had a membership of eighteen at the date of her last semi-annual. A great deal of interesting and valuable information was contained in that semiannual, by the way, both relating to the chapter and to the (Columbia) college. We commend the plan adopted by the corresponding secretary of that chapter to future secretaries in the discharge of their duties in preparing semi-annuals. It was a great credit to the good taste and judgment of the secretary in the choice of . subject matter .

BETA ALPHA had eight members at the close of the year. · She had also eight pledged barbs. The chapter held most of the important offices in both literary societies. The vice -president and one of the three directors of the base ball association, and the captain and umpire of the college nine, were members of the chapter. The chapter also had a full representation upon Kenyon Day committees, one of the two orators of the day and one of the two marshals, the .editor -in-chief of the college annual, the Reveille, and some other tions of honor.

FIFTEEN members composed Alpha Eta's chapter at the end of last year. Four pledged men were reported in the semiannual. The chapter was annoyed, some months ago, by the theft of certain chapter documents, and subsequent attacks of a peculiarly bitter and unbecoming nature by a presumably jealous rival. The chapter's conclusion that "there is a good deal of nonsense in pan-hellenism" hardly seems justifiable, as it is one of the pu-rposes of the movement to create a sentiment hostile to the puerile and cowardly practices, which are cultivated by some college . societies.

CHAPTER LETTERS. Lambda.

ANN ARBOR, Mi cH., J u ne 9, 1883.

BROTHER EDITORs-Contrary t o our expectations and wishes, we ha ve been represented in the journ a l this yea r perh aps so mewhat meagerl y. By way o f p a rtial ato nement, th e refor e, I t ake pleasur e in presenting h erew ith a s umm a ri zed statement o f Lambd a's doing s thr o u g h o ut the year just clo sin g:

R o ll-call in t he fall found e ig ht ee n of the "old g u a rd " in the city to rem a in , and among the numb e r four of the cl ass of '82 . Adding to these thr ee brothers from other chapters , a nd n o t forgetting ·four from the only cl ass in the univ e r s ity -in the opinion of the freshmen-you hav e the li s t as given in o u r December sen-ii -annual, namely: fra.tr es in u rb e, 5; law a nd m ed ical s chools , 3 and 2 respectivel y; a nd literarY. department , 15 ; t o t a l , 25; w ith an active member s hip of 20.

Brother Cheek , of ,Ep s ilon a nd Alpha Chi , entering the se ni o r law clas s, recei ved, with brother Grant, an LL.B. on th e 23d of March last. · The forme r is at hi s h o me in Danville, K y., and doe s n o t expect to locate perman e ntly until fall.

Brother Grant- John Henry, of courseis much pleased with hi s location at Manistee, Mich., where he is in the office of o n e of the best law firms in the s tate. A let t e r from headqu a rter s recently t e ll s u s that he " was lucky enough t o ge t a s nu g little h o u se, from w hich we (notice the "we "-not editorial, but of an e ntirely different nature can see Lake Mic hi ga n, " e i:c.

Brother Cooper, of Psi, is in the m ed ica l sc h oo l , a nd brother J o hn so n , of Alpha Beta, in the school of political s ci e nce , literary department. Brother C M. Coe, w h o has be e n a r es ident of Ann Arbor for severa l yea r s, left for D a k ota s h o rtl y aft er co ll ege o p e ned in the fall. He occup ie s the po si ti o n of d e put y r egis ter of d eeds at Columbia, ne a r w hich place hi s l a nd-cl ai m is located. Broth e r Dou g l as, o f Ka p pa , is s till act in g as in st ruct or of e locution in the high s ch.oo l , a nd , we beli eve, expects to be with u s in th e fall. Brother Hunt, wh o h'ls secured fo r him se lf the famitiar appell a tion of "Shorty," has lat e ly betaken himself to Detroit , where

he ma y be found at No. 10 Bank Block, in th e l aw office of Co l. Atkinson Brothers R a m sde ll and Shattuck are abs ent on account of ill health. The former was compelled to leave before the Christmas h o lid ays, and the latter found it advi sab le to di s cont inu e· work ju s t before the March vacation. Both are expected back in September.

One of th e many pleasant occasions of the year was the visit, in March, of brother 0 F. Price. class o f '58, li v in g at Gal esb ur g, Ill. Unk n own to his so n George, a nd in p ur suance of previous a rran ge m e nt s, he arrived in the city on the expected evening of the "s laug ht er" in behalf of the former. Imagine his son's s urpri se w h en, later in the evening, he was duly presented to paterfamilias as one of the a ssemb le d brothers ! Foll ow in g all this, of course, came a wondrou s tJopr, th a n which, say the boys, n o thin g better has ever been. Certain it is a m ost delightful time was had, and no one prese nt would h ave wished afterwards to h ave proved an alibi Appropriately in this c onnection mention may be mad e of v is it s received t hi s year from brother s Cumback, of Delta, Hascall, of Upsilon, Pritchard, of A lph a Eta and Alpha Lambda, Whisler, of Theta, and brothers Bell, Bronson, Garwood a nd Wilc ox, of our own chapter. Brother Bro n so n , who closes shortly his second y e a r as profes s or of Latin and modern lan g u ages at the Orchard L ake Military Academy, this state, sai l s for Europe o n the 13th in st., t o spend the summer vacati o n in a trip thr o u g h portions of England, France, Germa ny, et c The chapter ha s been a nti c ip a tin g for some tim e a vi sit from Capt. W. V. Ri c hard s, U.S. A. He expected to h ave reached Ann Arbor, hi s former h ome, in Apri l, on a sever a l month s' l eave of absence from hi s po s t at Fort Concho , Texas. As brother R. is a n1emb e r of '62, we doubtless s h a ll h a ve quite a treat in hearinO' of "au ld 1 " f "' ang sy ne r o m an ·'auld lan g sy n er." Brother Wh edon - spor ti ve Will-may possibly be in th e city n ex t yea r. Hope so. Will is one o f the " fam o u s Lambda quartette. " He and "S hort y" are the only ones of the four now ava il a ble for

"making a mas h ," for brothers Grant and Osborne have fallen victims to the inevitable; the former recently and · the latter about a year since.

Lambda's marriage record is still flourishing An extended account of the marriage, at Ann Arbor, of Miss Jennie McClellan and brother Don A Garwood, on October 26th, r882, appeared in these columns shortly afterwards. It is only necessary to add that brother Garwood and wife are living at Waterloo, Ind , where he is in the practice of the law. As to brother Grant - well, he "gave it away" on the evening of brother V. F. Price's visit, already referred to, and in due time we were able to record the marriage, at Burlington, Ind., April 5th, r883, of Miss Henrietta Mason and brother John H. Grant As we have disposed of brother Grant elsewhere, we can let him off easily here by extending to the four G's the hearty congratulations and best wishes of Lambda.

Ann Arbor has an unusually fruitful soil for fraternities. There are seventeen known to exist here now, with a membership ranging, perhaps, from twentyeight to ten. In the number of societies given we include two in the law school, one in the mfdical school, three new ones established in the literary department this year, and the two ladies' fraternities. Alpha Delta Phi has broken . ground for a chapter -house, l'lnd the foundation is to be put in before winter, to . stand through that season, the contractor having two years' time in which to complete the building, it is said. The Psi U's and Dekes both have chapterhouses here now.

Perhaps your readers would indulge the communication of what might be called a " vanity paragraph," dealing briefly with certain business relations, honors, etc., of some of the boys at Ann Arbor. Brother Beal is known as the editor of the Ann Arbor Coun'er, and, not long since, was made the president of the Michigan branch of the L. A. W.; for it must be known that he is quite a lover of the wheel - -not the only one of us, either, who is so disposed. Brother Boughton is the proprietor of Boughton's News Depot, the finest in the city, and on the same floor as the new post-office. Many of us think the prospect favorable for a notice of Wi ll is, under the "inevitable paragraph," before the close of '84's

stay in college. P l ease don't say anything about this ! The latest of brother Cady is that on yesterday he passed a "daisy" examination before the circuit judge for the practice of his profession in the courts of this state.

Brother York has been in the Ann Arbor School of Music this year as an assistant instructor. He continues in the same school the coming year, we believe. At this point I am going to take up the freshmen: it's heavy subject. There's brother Price, who took the prize on the horizontal bar at the May field day ; and brother Shattuck, the class orator. Then, too, we must remember brother Whyte, who toasted the ladies at his class supper. He is an editor on the Oracle board for next year. Brother Word, of the junior class, holds a prominent positior. in athletics at the university, and has lately been installed financial editor of '84' s Pallad£um, the annual publication of the secret societies It seems necessary to say, at this point, that the writer finds himself attempting to represent the chapter upon the Clzronicle, one of the college papers, now in its fourteenth volume . Among the seniors brother MeN eil, as Palladium editor for the current year, took pleasure in being able to mail a copy of the same, with university calendar for r882-83, to all of the chapters. I would not have you think that all have been mentioned here who are deserving of notice, for we are all noticeable, as every one has noticed.

Of '83's graduates, brothel McNeil expects to go into business at Union City, Ind.; brother Mosely was absent the first semester, but. returned the second, and thus takes his B. A. in three· and-a -half years. Brother York takes an M A in music this year, and will probably be in the city the coming year. Our undergraduates expect to return in the fall, with, possibly, one exception, and we are to be re -enforced by brothers from different classes who are not with us now. Our outlook, too, for '87 men is 0. K.

It may be of special interest to many to know that the law course hereafter is to consist of two years' work, of nine months each, closing at the regular time of the literary department, in June, instead of in March. The change cannot fail to make the school better than ever.

You may ex.Pect a hearty co-operation

from us in making the proposed change in ·the paper for next year a grand success.

With Lambda's best wishes to all,

James Albert Case, Cor. Sec.

Beta Delta.

ITHACA, June 12, 1883.

DEAR BROTHERS- With the close of the college year Beta Delta ends one of the most eventful eras of her existence. Within this time she has risen from one of the lowest to one of the highest ranks in the ' list of Cornell societies.

Prejudices raised in the past by vari?us unfortunate circumstances, many of wh1ch are doubtless familiar to you, have been overcome, and we are to-day one of the strongest of the fraternities here represented.

It may appear egotistical for a member of the chapter to laud it in such a manner, yet if all were familiar with the work done, with the difficulties encountered, and with our actual present condition, the egotism would, at least, pardonable.

On the I Ith of May last we had our fourth reunion of the year, by which four men pledged themselves to honor and sustain Beta Theta Pi. Of these men three were from the freshmen, and one from the junior class. They were "rushed" by several other societies; but, fortunately for us, recognized Beta Delta as their first choice.

The honors of the class of '83 at Cornell may truly be said to belong to Beta Theta Pi.

The boys were not satisfied with having two out of five Woodford orators, but were so greedy as to capture two out of nine Phi Beta Kappas (but three societies were represented at all). Still later, and it was announced that brothers Alling, Elmer and Pratt were chosen, with five others, to represent the class on the commencement stage. To say that we are jubilant is putting it very mild indeed.

Brother Shively, '84, one of our babes, must needs come in for a share of the glory, by taking mid-course honors in French and German.

We had a very pleasant though short visit from brother Wambaugh. He impressed all the boys as being of that genial and energetic character which has helped to make Beta Theta Pi what it is. We

sincerely hope that the visit will be repeated at no distant time.

With th!s letter, seven of our memb e rs step down and out from participation in the active duties in the chapter.

We feel that it is in good hand s , and can not help but succeed. Some good work has been done, and will be done for at least four years.

Our freshmen are considered the leading men in their class; and, with sl!ch cool-headed seniors as brothers McGmre, Shively, Carpenter and Ingalls, the chapter must sustain the reputation which has been so justly earned.

Our new quarters will aid them greatly in their work as will also the next convention. The' latter must certainly give the eastern chapters a grand boom.

I say, it must; for, .of course, a tion of Beta Theta p, can not help bemg a success. Though Saratoga is not so centrally located as one might wish, yet there is no reason . why the pink and blue should not be well represented.

Yours in xa( --, C. Locke Curtis.

Rho.

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY, RHo HALL, September, 1883. J

DEAR BROTHERS-Doubtless a chapter should be judged by its letters; but you must not take this standard for Rho, for in the last term of '82-'83 she has shown more enthusiasm than 1 can infuse intb a letter.

We have not increased in numbers. Thou'gh we have no fixed limit, yet we feel that sixteen members are as many as we can well handle, and seldom go above that number.

During the spring term a number of the chapter were favored in visiting the brothers of Chi and Alpha Pi. Four of our boys were mem hers of the base- ball nine that made a trip to Beloit and Madison, and three others accompanied the party to see how the worship of Wooglin was prospering. They were royally entertained the trip through. The Beloit chapter, though small, is harmonious and alert, and it has the respect of the college faculty and students. At Madison old acquaintances were renewed and new ones formed. In the class of '83 Alpha Pi sent out a .fine lot of men. In succeeding years their prestige will do much for the chapter.

Commencement week was a grand time for Rho. In addition to brothers Hamilton, '79, and Foster, '81, who are always on hand, there were present brothers Kinman, '78, from Jacksonville, Ill.; Thatcher, '81, from Aurora, and Miller, '82, from St. Paul. Brother Isaac Adams, ' 79, who never missed such an occasion before, was called away on business .

A boat-ride inaugurated the week for Betas. The day was fine and Lake Michigan never in better humor. A nicer set of ladies never graced a Beta festival. Aopr was abundant- in short, everything combined to make the day one of pleasure.

Minor events of the week proved very enjoyable to us, but comment would be uninteresting to others. On commencement day brothers Bon tell,.Rho, '75, A. D . Rich, Lambda, '51, and Arthur Edwards, Theta, '58, were with us. I am certain that these brothers, personifying W ooglin, were not "grieved at the result of Rho's work," as shown on that day On a programme of twelve speakers were our four boys and the two "Beta girls."

On this day, too, was announced the result of the Kirk oratorical contest, giving the prize of $100 to brother Bannister .•

The other successful candidates mentioned on this day were Bloom, '85, and Hatfield, '83. Bloom took second prize in the junior-sophomore debate contest, and Hatfield second in the Adelphic oratorical.

I will now close this with our standing invitation to all brothers happening into Chicago to visit us, It takes but thirty minutes to reach us . If necessary, lay over one train, but show your face to N. \1'-l. U. Yours in xal , Wm. D. Fullerton, Ass't Cor. Sec. Rho.

A l pha Lambda.

\VeosTER; 0., September 29, 1883 .

DEAR BROTHER En1 TORS- Alpha Lambda this year enters upon the thirteenth year of her existence; her prospects were never brighter at the opening of any year. At our last commencement the future of our chapter seemed qark ; but, thanks to the ever-living spirit of W ooglin in the breasts of his worthy sons, the darkness of the past changed into the brightness of the present, and we now present a strong front to all of

our rivals In addition to those who returned who were here last year, we are plea<;ed to announce the names of brothers F. B. Pearson and T. G. McConkey; the former having been out of college three years, the latter one year. It is needless to say that in these two men chapter finds good material, and, · w1th what we had before, we now stand "par exc ellence "-at the top.

Since the opening of the term we have added to our list the names of ]. C. Conway, '85, and Wilbur P. Kirkwood, '88; both of whom have already imbibed the true spirit of Betaism. We have three or four other men in view, and our prospee ts for them are of the best.

We regret to report the absence of brother Gooding, '84. He has ever been one of Alpha Lambda's "standbys," and in losing him we suffer no trifling loss. May he soon be able to return to his duties at Wooster. Our membership, then, is as follows: .] A. Culler, '84 ; John McCoy, '84; ]. C. Conway, '85; F. B. Pearson, '85 ; D. L. Moore, '85 ; Ed. E. Weaver, '8:;; T. G. McConkey , '86; G A. Shires, '86; E. P Dunlap, '87; Sam. M . Kirkwood, '87; W. P. Kirkwood, '88. Although we now have a goodly number, yet we are by no means idle, and expect in a short time to inerease it.

Brother Brilles represented the chapter in the convention, and reports a delightful time We only wish the attendance had been larger. We, of course, would not say the convention was out of place at Saratoga, but it being so far east precluded the possibility of so large an attendance as usual. We think the eastern chapters worthy of praise for their efforts. in behalf of this, the really first eastern convention, and that thev did their whole duty. We are glad to know that the next one will be held in Cleveland.

It gives us much pleasure, brother editors, to think that your efforts are untiring for the success of our ably-conducted and interesting paper. We note with pleasure the announcement of its enlargement and improvement, and hope that Betas from all - parts of the country will promptly come to the aid of this prai seworthy effort, and be free with spirited and sound contributions; we, at least, hope to do our share.

Ed . E. Weaver, Cor. Sec.

ST. PAuL, MINN., Sept. 25, 1883.

DEAR BETA THETA Pr-There is no part of the country over which Wooglin holds sway where there is so much need of utilizing all the means at band for forming and cementing friendships, as in the " new north west." The busy life of these new communities tends to develop more and more the selfish tendencies in men's natures, and to cause them to care less and less for the social side of life. Hence it has seemed for a long time, to many of the Betas of Minnesota, that an organization should be effected by means of which the cords of fraternity might be drawn a little closer and some n'Jore efrectual aid given to the work of maintaining the dignity and prosperity of Beta Theta Pi.

This sentiment, prevalent among all the Betas whom I have met, crystallized recently, and the result was a meeting of Betas, resident in this city and Minneapolis, at St. Paul, for the purpose of taking steps preparatory to the organization of a Minnesota alumni association.

At this meeting brother A. E. Jaggard presided, a mutual interchange of ideas was had, expressions of interest from absent Betas were reported, and committees were appointed to act upon, the various suggestions made. The committee appointed to correspond with Betas throughout the state, and to gain from them expressions of opinion and their presence at

the meeting for organiz a tion , to be held in Minneapolis, September I7th , were brothers Chas. B. Holm es, H . C. M ea d, and J. M Hawke s; the c o mm i tte e to draft constitution and by-law s, br o ther s W. C. Sprague, S. L. Baker, H H Mill e r, and H. H. Cleveland.

Thus the project s o long in embr yo has become a healthy infant, and th e fraternity may look forward to g reat thin gs from the youngster. By a id of the cat a logue a nd much investigation in various ways, there have been re s cued from the barbarian hosts over forty staunch Gr e eks living in the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and others are being heard frbm in other sections of the state-brother Hamilton's home, as is well known, being at Duluth

A truce has been declared between the Greeks of the rival citie s, and they, as in the case of the cities of ancient Hellas, when public calamities thre a tened, can be depended upon to act together in upholding the interest of Beta Theta Pi amid the mighty growth of barbarian interests on all sides. A good feeling prevails among all concerned-very much akin to enthusiasm - that will insure a healthy organization in this great center of population. I send you a few personals, with a promise of more, and the best wishes of Minnesota Betas to the BETA THETA PI. In-- xal--,

Will C. Sprague .

.POTPOURRI.

The L1 J{ E for October is well up to its usual good style. The October number begins the second volume of this magazine, whose entrance into the field of fratern ity journalism was quite a departure, and as pleasing to the disinterested lover of the good as it was disheartening to numerous rivals who aspired to take the lead in this growing department of journalistic art. No one who has championed the fraternity system through its struggles in the past will fail to be delighted with the splendid triumphs achieved of late years, not the least of wh!ch have been witnessed in the journalism of the several fraternities. It is

with a real pleasure that we see our new contemporary maintaining the excellent standard that it assumed at the start, and · we trust it will survive to win a permanent position among the leading publications of its class. The has an advantage over monthly publications in the leisure which is afforded it to prepare and edit each succeeding issue with a care that can hardly be bestowed upon journals of more frequent issue; and, again, the financial. resources of a quarterly are so concentrated as to give a better and fuller scope to the publisher's desires and tastes. The BETA THETA Pr pre ents to its readers about I 50 pages of reading matter

inside the same time that the i'<_uarterly produces less than roo. The cost of the former for an equal edition is probably more than double that of the latter. At the same time, in order to meet the demands of our readers, we are compelled to sacrifice the elaboration ' which to some extent characterizes our esteemed neighbor. We should like to present our readers each with a copy of the LJ /{ E SZ uarterly, in order to show what is being accomplished by others in the line which we are pursuing, and to illustrate the advancement that has been m ade in fraternity publications. The magazine is a trifle lar ger than the Jllortlz American Review, and contains ninety-four pa g es, exclusive of advertisements. It co ve rs the f o llowin g matter:

Theod01· e Winthrop's Writings, by Julian Hawthorne.

The Orn icmn Chapter, by Claudius B Grant

Our Convention Develupment, by Charles H. Beckett.

Editorials- The Next Convention; The PanHell e nic Council; A Modern Myth, Pte. R eviews -Greek Student Annuals; Ameriean College Fraternities, second edition; The New Zeta Psi Catalogue.

E xc hanges -7 pages.

Chapter L etters-28 in number

G-raduate Persona ls-12 pages.

THE Shield ( r/J f( lfl') for June hopes " th a t every loyal Phi Psi will, regardless of hi s party affiliations, support and work with his be s t energies for the eleYation of our brother Foraker to the post of high hon or for which he has been nominated." In this somewhat extrao,rdinary paragr ap h the Phi ' Kappa Psi fraternity openly carries the rivalries of the co llege fraternit y into th!! politics of the state, as it is in oppo s ition to Judge Hoadly, the candidate of Beta Theta Pi for the governorship of Ohio, that this exhortation is made. If the election in Ohio were to turn upon the weight of the college -fr ternity influence, we fear Mr. Foraker would have to take a b a ck seat. But we are bound to say that, in the present hostile attitude of both political parties towards any rational ide as in government, and the absence of any perceptible difference between the two great parties in their practical politics, it is with relief and delight th a t we discover a t'eal, live, tangible issue in the great political contest in Ohio . Mr. Foraker is a Phi Psi and Judge Hoadl y is a Beta If that isn't enough to form an issue upon, what is? Let it once

be known throughout the state and the result must be immediately felt; the canvass will be enlivened and illumin ed with a new light; dragons and sk ulls and owls and lighted tapers and altars will be the subjects of public solicitude, as they should be ; ballots will be printed in Greek, and the seedy ward politician c a n find a new source of spiritual exaltation in advocating the superior mysteries of Phi I(appa Psi. Truly, a new era in politics is before u s.

The Shi eld is largely devoted, editoriall y, to exhortation. Th e burden of the editor's qes.ire i s that the fraternity s hould come forward more freely to the support of the pap er, b oth in the way of s ub scriptions and contributions. Some good points are made a nd suggestions give n, and we wish our friends success in gaining all they sue for, as it surely mu st be very trying to edit a paper for a lukewarm constituency. It is the warm, enthusiastic, ready support of the entire fraternity, in its best and brightest humor, that makes life a pleasure to the editor and leads him to the heights

THE editorial management of the Scroll ( r/J LJ 8) ha s been changed. Mr. Thomas, formerly editor, h a ving resi gne d , Mr. \V. B. Palmer , of N as hville , Tenn ., has accepted the po s ition of edi tor-in -chief. The paper will be iss ued, hereafter , at Nashville.

THE announcement of the publication of the f/J · Lf 8 catalogue a fford s another interesting instan·ce of the l a bor that is being expended upon gen 'eral fraternity enter. prises. It is a repetition of the struggles and perseverance of the determined cataIogue editor, so remarkably illustrated in the labors of our brothers Seaman, BairJ, an d Terrell. The dela ys, the annoyances, the continued and fatiguing, a nd oftentimes fruitless, pursuit of obscure or badlyresponsive brothers, who see no use in fraternity catalogues, or, being dead, , are nece ssa rily silent to the continued appeals for statistics, all are narrated in the account which the editors of this new publication have sent to their fraternity brethren in bringing the work to their notice. It is an interestin g s tudy to watch the development of college fraternities . Almost all of them are following parallel line s of progress. Almost all.of them, it is pleasing to say, are progres sing . There are some far in advance, and their foot ste ps are fol- . lowed by the smaller fraternities with an

earnestness that loses the color of imitation when it is considered that it is all in the line of a common purpose-the elevating, the dignifying, the advancement of that above-all-others now powerful and important college the fraternity. We watch with a curious interest the endeavors of such fraternities as Chi Phi and Psi Upsilon to simulate a spirit of exclusiveness and indifference to the general proo-ress of the fraternity world, while the bgreat wave rolls on, carrying them, despite their foolish notions, along with the rest. There is a force beneath which propels the entire body; there ·is a certain energy that is common to all. The better fraternities realize this , and the stronger ones of common sense have no desire, w bile they moYe gramlly on, to crush out the spirit of progress from those small but zealous fraternities which form an important part of the system as a whole.

The catalogue epidemic-if a fever so desirable to have may be called an epidemic-is prevailing strongly at this time. The standard publications of Alpha Delta Phi and Beta Theta Pi have furnished the inspiration to other fraternities, and there is an intelligent interest in the subject and a desire to improve upon the former methods that is exceedingly gratifying. Phi Delta Theta, while her work is not nearly so extensive nor so costly as those mentioned, has carefully examined and compared these leading publications, and in some matters of detail has doubtless improved upon other catalogues Her statistics, while marred by too many abbreviations, are very full, and will doubtless be of interest to her members. "Table of

· Consanguinity" shows a related membership of 481, of whom there are 197 pairs of brothers. Brothers are almost uniformly of the same chapter, and as a rule are initiated within two or three years of each other, or generally within the limits of the same college course. We published last year specimen pages of this catalogue in advance.

• MEM_BERS a college chapter are not m a fan· pos1t:on to realize the relative and standing of the various fratermtles. The local situation has much do with molding opinions, though this IS not so much the case now as it was a few :>:ears since. Fraternity journalism and literature, and the constant intercommunication of fraternity men, have

made the knowledge of fraternity affairs more universal than heretofore. But it is to the journalist, or one who has access to the exchanges of the severa l fraternities, that classification becomes natural and easy. The one classification that is s uggested most naturally to suc h a lo oker-on does not follow any sect ion al lines, though the geographical idea is involved to some extent. It is, I, the fraternity of R 8 n, (we follow the Latin order of personal mention) ; z, the three fraternities, A L1 1/J, L1 J( E, and qr Y; 3, all other college fraternities, (among the most prominent of these being I[J J( IJI, I[J L1 8, 1/J r Ll, L1 T L1, and 1: X in the west; A T Q, 1: A E, and X 1/J in the south; Z IJf, L1 Y, X IJl.:, L1 IJr, etc., in the east.) The fraternity of Beta Theta Pi stands 'upon a high point of vantage, from which it looks abo ut upon the surrounding fraternity world. Its territory extends in every direction, and it is alike interested in the affairs of all sections. Its care extends over New England-where its chapters are strongly intrenched-through the middle states and the south its lines of works stretch out; over the west, covering its many strongholds, its vision reaches to the farthest coast where the banners of the fraternity float over the University of California. It is sui generis. It can not be categorized with any other fraternity.

The three fraternities above mentioned fall into a clas s of themselves, as they are in many respects very simi lar, though neither would probabl y acknowledge the other as its prototype. Their similarity consists largely in the +act that they are numerically strong; they have large chapter memberships; they hold more or less real property in the way of club-houses; they are distinctively eastern, each haYing but two or three chapters in the west. They may be called the represent a tives of the old eastern dispensation. They do not hesitate each to assume for itself the precedence , though they are not equally modest in their assumptions.

Psi Upsilon has the air of havino- soured on the world; its secret trouble s and family miseries hold it together painfully but proudly. It is an object of solicitude to the fraternity undertaker. An immediate upon its estate, though desn·able, 1s, however , not probable.

Delta Phi is, perhaps, the most plac1d of college fraternities. Havino- in many respects the best claim to over its class, it makes no special display

of the fact, but with becoming demeanor devotes itself to its affairs, and very gracefully observes the amenities of fraternity life.

Delta Kappa Epsilon swears by its new f!luart e rly. It has the largest member;,hip of any fraternity, and a larger number of chapters than either Psi Upsilon or Alpha Delta Phi. The "Dekes" are "too good fellows" to be either very resthetic or very morose. The youthful scion of somewhat aristocratic parentage, standing with his best clothes on and wondering whether he should run off with the boys or go with his rna in the carriage to have his picture taken, illustrates the attitude of Delta Kappa Epsilon in the last f!luart e rly towards fraternities in general, and Psi Upsilon and Alpha Delta Phi. But there is an apparent tendency on the part of these three fraternities to hang together; that is, Psi U psiJon hangs about the neck of Alpha Delta Phi on one side, and Delta Kappa Epsilon fondles her upon the other. Alpha Delta Phi receives these blandishments modestly, though not unwillingly. The adulator y relationship thus assumed may be for purposes of coalition only, as specially insisted upon- recently by a writer in the Psi Upsilon Diamond, against the useless multiplication of societies and the encroach'ments of certain

fraternities upon the old colleges of the east. Certainly it does not grow out of a real fondness of these societies for each other, as their rivalry is very intense.

We throw all other fraternities into one class, because they pre sent few if any prominent characteristics not possessed bv one or the other of the two classes al.ready mentioned, while they differ from them only in their extent and influence, or in the character of their membership, or the machinery by which they are regulated. There are among them fraternities distinctively eastern, or western, or southern; but in this they represent practically but one or the other phase of Beta Theta Pi, or of Delta Kappa Epsilon, Alpha Delta Phi, or P s i Upsilon .

Beta Theta Pi is in sympathy with the western and southern fraternities, because it has common interests with them, has always been identified with them, and warm personal friendships exist between its members and theirs through college associations, independent of fraternity relations. The same identity of interests now exists between Beta Theta Pi and the eastern fraternities. The bond of identity, while it is not of so long standing as in the former case, is fully established, and every day grows stronger.

THE FRATERNITY WORLD.

DELTA BETA PHI is now enjoying a locaLexistence at the City College of New York.

SIGMA Psi at Syracuse, and Kappa Psi at South-Western Presbyterian U niversity, are local societies recently reported .

Psi UPSILON announces the forthcoming publication of the Epitome, a sort of historical narration in regard to the fraternity.

DELTA GAMMA's last chapter is. at Albion College, Mich. The society announces the issue, at an early date, of a periodical to be called the Ancora.

THE Q T. V. fraternity has •established a chapter at the New Hampshire Agricultural College, which is a department of Dartmouth College. The chapter is appropriately called the "Granite" chapter, after the favorite name of the state

ALPHA BETA TAu and Sigma Kappa are to be added to the list of ladies' societies; the former at Oxford, Miss ., and · the latter at Waterville , Me.

PHI KAPPA Psi we should not be surprised to see revived at Cornell soon. Indications point strongly that way. The revived Slzield is making a success.

DELTA Psi has formed her New York alumni into an association called the "St. Anthony Club," and promises to help her Columbia chapter materially by this means.

SouTHERN KAPPA ALPHA has placed chapters, this year, at Vanderbilt U niversity and the University of Mississippi , and has a chapter under way at the embryo University of Texas. The official journal of the fraternity will not be sub rosa during the present collegiate year.

DELTA TAU DELTA has a new at the University of the South, IS contemplating placing a chapter m the new University of Colorado. The new catalogue is in press.

PHI DELTA PHI has in preparation a new catalogue. This legal fraternity has been remarkably successful. Its la s t chapter was p laced at Law School, in San Francisco, m June.

SIGMA CHI's last chapter is at daJe. This fraternity is making a creditable and persistent effort to up gaps in its early history, and promises t? soon have ready an entertaining narrative of its early struggles .

THE Rainbow or W. W. W. society, which has for many years maintained a high stand at the U nive.rsity of Miss_issippi, has placed a chap_ter at Vanderbilt. This old but small society deserves the protection of a larger organization.

THETA DELTA CHI adds another chapter to t he many new ones at Columbia College. The fraternity has a strong chapter at Dartmouth, and fairly good ones at some ten other colleges. It deserves a better position than it has.

DELTA UPSILON is intending to speedily re-establish its parent chapter at Williams College. The f!luarterLy is doing well financially, though it has devoted itself so exclusively to historical data that it is not very entertaining reading to any but D. U .'s .

PHI BETA KAPPA he l d a convention at Saratoga the first week in September. We appreciate the earnest efforts which are being made to revive this society, but believe that it has no place in the college world except the one it now occupies The meeting was, as usual, under the influence large ly of the Harvard chapter. The new chapter at Cornell was represented.

ALPHA TAu 0MEGk has two sub rosa chapters in North Carolina, one at the State Univer sity and the other at the Bingham Hi g h School. The chapters at Stevens Institute and St. Lawrence U niversity are doing very we ll and much better than last year. This fraternity at one t i me had several chapters not attached to any collegiate institution, but these have long since been abando n ed .

SIGMA Nu is as li ve ly as its name is short. It ha s founded chapters at Central Universi ty , Ky., and Bethany_ College, W . Va., and little periodical announces 1ts of no long er leaving the field of extensiOn to its older rivals .

PHI D ELTA THETA's last chapters are at the University of the South and Hillsdale. The chapter at Trinity University has become defunct. After the withdrawal of the Beta Theta Pi chapter it ran sub rosa, and was finally reported to the faculty by some jealou s neut ral.

KAPPA SIGMA ha s new chapters at the University of the South and University of West Virginia, and has established one at an academy at Sing Sing, N. Y., which we trust will experience a speedy extinction . The chapter placed at the U niversity of Colorado is in a precarious condition.

CHI Psi has recently established a chapter at the Ste vens In stit ute which is doing well. The chapter at Wesleyan was reported defunct in the spring, but has rallied and is making a gallant fight for existence . A journal, called the Purple and Gold, will be issued, under the auspices of the fraternity, in November.

SIGMA ALPHA EPSILON is rapidly recovering from the eflects of a recent period of depression . New chapters have been recently established at South-Western .Presbyterian University and at Pennsylvania College, and it is rumored that a sub rosa chapter is in operation at Davidson College.

PHI KAPPA SIGMA has revived her Delta chapter at Washington and J efferson College with three men, and her Sigma chapter at Lehigh with one. The Lafayette chapter is now entirely defunct It was · the first chapter established at Lafayette, and had a fine reputation. It deserved a better fate.

CHI PHI's approaching convention in January will probably change the complexion of the editorial staff of the !!(uarterLy. There a re chapters running, though not chartered, at Vanderbilt and Johns Hopkins, and it is rumored that the Xi chapter" at Cornell is to be re-established . This chapter was, in times past, a good one, and its alumni have rallied to its support.

DELTA Pur has recently issued a new and ta s ty catalogue, although it is on the old plan and does not contain full statistic s or biographical notes. Their chapter at the University of Pennsylvania , which w as revived upon the ruins of a Ll B f/J chapter as a basis, is doing very well.

PHI GAMMA DELTA has a new chapter -Sigma Deuteron-at Lafayette College. The journal of this fraternity h a s not, of late , been as interesting as usual. There has been some discussion in the fraternity in regard to changing the seat of government from New York City more toward

the territorial center of the fraternity. · The revived chapter at Colu'mbia is doing very nicely.

KAPPA ALPHA THETA has followed her eastern movement at Corn e ll b y placing a chapter at Wesleyan U niversity , Conn. We are heartily plea s ed to see our western sisters turn tow a rd the rising sun for fields to conquer. Even august Columbia may yet have a chapter. We can imagine better than describe the horror of the Columbia Sp ectator at such a prospect.

THE BETAS.

E. W. S. TINGLE, Eta, is in Glendive, Montana.

S. B. PEARMAIN, Eta, is in Chelsea, Massachusetts.

L. S . CuMBACK, Delta, '75, is traveling for a Chicago book firm.

E. C. HARDING, Beta Theta , '83, will study law in Scranton, Pa.

E M. KrNMAN, Rho, '78, represents Beta in the Illinois legislature.

W. B. GLANDING, Alpha Sigma, is for the present at Newport, Pa .

FRANK T. SMITH , Psi, '8o, is practicing medicine at Youngstown, Ohio.

REv. A . S. DuDLEY, Alpha , ' 58, has moved from Granville to Morrow, 0.

W . E. C. SMITH , Eta, is at the Episcopal Theological Seminary, Cambridge

WILLIAM HALL WILLIAMS, Eta, is studying theology in Davenport, Iowa.

J. C. BANNISTER, Rho, '83, will teach in the Princeton high school this winter.

]. M. HAWKES, Rho, '74, ha s a good berth in the Pioneer Pr ess office in St . Paul.

J. L. WILKIN, Alpha Eta, '86 , is at his home in Toledo, 0. He will be back in

E.]. PoLLoCK, Theta, '84, alias "Pat," is keeping books for an exten si v e hardware firm in Delaware.

W. S . WHISLER, Theta , practicing denti s t in Detroit, was with Lambda at the "swinging" of George Price, ' 86.

W.]. MosiER , Beta Theta, '82, has en- . tered the Hamilton Theological Seminary.

GEORGE P PERRY, Beta Theta, ' 82, is principal of the Academy at Athens, Pa.

WILLIAM T. WRIGHT, Bet a Alph a , '78, .is practicing medicine at Dennison, Iowa.

CAREY ]. PoPE, Beta Theta , has the Hamilton Theological Seminary.

1

R. D. BRIGGS, Beta Thet a , '86, has been appointed assistant l ibrarian of the Un;.ver s ity.

E. S. MciNNES, Eta, W. T. Lord and R a lph Wilson enter the Harvard Law School.

WrLL. C. SHEPPARD, Alpha Eta, '84, is princip a l of the public schools at Hanover, 0.

ANOTHER Rho boy gone to California . ]. P. McWilliams, '85 , will winter at Los Angeles.

CHARLES G. RANK, Alpha Eta , '86, of N e wark, 0 ., will not return to college this year.

C. E. HAWORTH, Beta Theta, '82, will complete his medical course at Louisville , Kentucky

W. A. LoMBARD, Eta , is traveijng in Europe, and intends to engage in the lumber trade in Michigan on his return this fall.

R. D. JACKSON, Omega, '82, returned in June from Arizona. He was engaged in several Indian fights, and narrowly escaped with his life .

F. W. DooLITTLE, Beta Theta, '83, is teaching in the Troy Academy, Troy, New York.

HowARD LILIENTHAL and George H. Heilbron, of Eta, enter the Harvard Medical School.

F. W. SHEPARDSON, Alpl:a '?z, is a teacher in the Young Ladies Institute, Granville, 0.

REv. M. D. SHUTTER, Alpha Eta, is pastor of the First Baptist Church of Minneapolis.

JAMES T. HATFIELD, Rho, is taking a pleasure trip through the missiOn fields of China and Japan.

PROF. W. E. CHANDLER, Lambda, '82, has been principal of the Fenton, Mich., high school since graduating.

W. S. SwAN, '84, and A.M. Dyer, '84, of Beta Theta, are on the editorial corps of the Madisonensis this year.

U. M. CHAILLE, Alpha Eta, '73, is one of the editors of the Indiana Baptist, published at Indianapolis, Ind.

GEORGE P. CoLER, Beta, has been elected principal of the preparatory department of the Ohio University.

W. R. PoMERENE, Alpha Lambda, '8 5, is working in the Democratic Central Committee Rooms, at Columbus, 0.

GEo H. FoRD, Beta Kappa, '62, of Burton, Ohio, has been nominated by the Republicans for the Ohio "legislature.

"BILLIE" BELL, formerly of Lambda, '8I, while on his "drumming" excursions, drops in upon his chapter quite frequently.

A. A. CASTLE, J. ]. Robinson, and F. M. Stalker, all of Alpha Eta, '84, have entered the senior class of Princeton College.

WILLARD C. RANK, of Newark, 0., Alpha Eta., is back in college. He drops from '84 to '85 by reason of a year's absence .

ED.•LANIER, Theta, '85, Bloomington, Illinois, was lately married, and is now seeking his fortune from the fertile plains of Kansas.

CHIEF W. A. HAMILTON, Rho, '79, is attorney for the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, with headquarters at Superior, \Vis.

H. E. SLAUGHTER, Beta Theta , valedictorian of '83, is profes sor .of mathematics at Peddie Institute, Heightstown, New Jersey.

J. J. LENTZ, Lambda, '82, was ated from the Columbia Law School this spring, having completed the two years' work in one.

J. P. LANGHORNE , University of Virginia , and J. H. Miller, Alpha Kappa, h ave become partners in the law at San Fr anc isco.

GARETT ELLISON , Alpha Eta, '85, of Kansas City, Mo., ha s ju s t got over a s iege of typhoid fever. He may return to Denison later in the year.

DAviD T WILCox, formerly of Lambda '83 has been out of college s ince his year. He paid his chapter a short visit last winter.

RoBERT B. RANSOM , Lambda, '82, who graduated from the school of pharmacy, was clerk in the Michigan legislature during a part of la s t winter.

BROTHERS AUSTIN AND WILKINSON, Omeg a, '86, started for the .Sandw!ch Island s, May 25th, to spend their vacatwn at the home of the former.

H. H. MILLER, Rho, '82, is vice-president of a flourishing manufacturing company and special chemist for the Northern Pacific Railroad, with offices in St. PauL

].]. STURGUS, Iota, '8o, graduated from the Hahnemann Medical College, Philadelphia, Pa., last March. He was at Ann Arbor two years in the homreopathic school.

W T. HuDGINS, '79, is the county attorney at Texarkana, Texas, and if there is anything in a name, he ought to have his hands full, the very county being "Bowie."

W. L. HERVEY has again come ·back to Denison. He was recently elected editor of the Collegian for the ensuing year, to take the place vacated by brother F. M. Stalker.

JAMES BEARNES, Theta, '78, the irrepressible, was in Delaware at the early dawn of the present collegiate year. "Jim" made himself quite scarce while there ; not many of the boys were fortunate enough to view his symmetrical corpus.

CHAS. T. THOMPSON, Alpha Eta, '73, formerly of Cincinnati, is a member ' of the bar of Minneapolis, and has a large practice as well as a large interest in Beta Theta Pi.

CHAS. B. HoLMEs, Theta, is one of Minneapolis' most enthusiastic Betas. He is following the law and gaining rapidly a good practice and high standing at the bar . ·

E P VANDERCOOK, Rho, ' 84, has returned much .benefited by his year in California. His health will not permit him to remain in Evanston, however, and he will go to Amherst.

HARRY E. BAKER, Theta, son of Gen. J. H. Baker, commissioner of railroads of Minnesota, and ex-secretary of state of Ohio, is manager of the North - Western Paint Works, at St. Paul.

F. W. SHEPARDSON and F . M. Stalker made the boys of Pi a flying visit, September sth, and found them royal go od Betas, evidently the best boys the university .affords. No discount on Pi!

R. HEBER THOMPSON, Iota , '77, was married at Mark West, Cal., August 29, x883, to Miss Adeline Laughlin. Mr. and Mrs . Thompson are now residing at Seattle , Wa shington Territory .

J. R. HuGHES, '83, has just returned from a trip in the west and from attendance upon the California conclave. At pre se nt "Jack" is enjoying the quietness of his home at Wakefield, Ohio

E. A. RANKIN, Alpha Epsilon, ' 76 , Iowa Wesleyan Univ e rsity, is permanentl y located in San Francisco. He expres ses himself as ready to receive anything, from .a big bonanza suit to a police court case

A · D ScHINDLER, Omega, '83, has accepted a position on the coast survey. In company with " Bob" Marr, Alpha Theta, he will go to Pt. Barrow to make ·observations. The trip will probably take six months.

JOHN J. McCABE, Theta, '78, has been in Delaware during the past week greeting Theta boys with the plea!'antries of his college days . He occupied the pulpit of St. Paul's M . E. Church, Sunday evening, September 23. Conference re-appointed him to Germantown for the coming year.

J. T . PrcKERING, Theta, '83, is piloting the young minds of Tarlottsville through shoals and shallows and off sand-bars Occasionally he embellishes his collegiate know l edge with extracts from Blackstone.

C. C. PICKERING, Theta, '83, finds himself enjoying the same felicity as J. T. He murders the "tender stock" of Pickerington with the accustomed joke of which "C. C." is criminally guilty

C. F. CASTLE, Alpha Eta, '8o, having become weary of single blessedness, was married during the summer to Miss Mary Shirk, of Red Oak, Iowa, a graduate of the Young Ladies' Institute in the class of'78

B. B. TuTTLE, Alpha Eta, '87, is kept at home by the absence of his father in Europe . Burt has been local editor of the Brantford, Ont., daily paper during the summer. He will return to Granville in Tan uary, I 884.

LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER A. DER. MeN air, Eta, has spent three years at Harvard prep a ring a treati se on the sea floor for the benefit of the United St a tes Navy. The work is now being completed at his home in Saratoga.

THOMAS W. PHILIPPS, Alpha Eta, '74, a prominent lawyer of Newark, Ohio, and always heretofore a strong Republican, has come out for Hoadly for Governor. Whether Tom was drawn through Betaism or not we can not say.

C. L. D. WASHBURN ; Beta Gamma, '75, who gave up the pr a ctice of law some time ago on account of ill health, was reported in June last as on the engineering force of the Harri sburg and Western Railroad, at Bedford, Pa.

MR. FRANK TAGGART, Alpha Lambda, attorney at law, a nd known among the boys as the "barrister," was married Friday evening, September 7th, to Miss Lizzie Wallace, daughter of Rev. D. A. Wallace, of Alpha chapter.

E. A. J AGGARD, Alpha Sigma, '79, is a prominent young attorney of St. Paul. Brother J aggard · has been in his new home but a few months and already is well and favorably known. He is an enthusiastic worker for the new organization of Minnesota alumni, and presided over the preliminary meeting.

PRoFEssoR J. S. HouGHAM, '46, one of the early men at Tau, is professor of chemistry at Cooper Academy, Dayton, Ohio. He is a loyal Beta, and has many pleasant reminiscences of the early days to impart to the younger Betas.

SAM . L. Pi, '82, is the . Baker so widely known in the Cmcmnati Law School during the past. two years. He brig_ht shmgle in Minneapolis, and IS makmg fnends and business with commendable speed.

H . C. MEAD, Theta, '72, is general agent of the Accident Insu.rance pany of North America, w1th offices 1.n the Mannheimer Block, St. Paul, and IS doing a large. busines s, besi.des. giving some time to h1s Beta Theta P1 ne1ghbors.

A. M. MANN, Theta, '85, otherwise "Perky," is temporarily engage? upon the Evening Journal, at Wheelmg, W. Va., of which organ his brother, E. E. Mann, is business manager. N e':t term will restore to the chapter the1r lost "Jewel."

BusiNESS has called from Theta's numher of last year W. B. Baldwin, '85 He is keeping booj.<s for the firm of Butler & Bunker, boot and shoe merchants. Will is a resident of Delaware, living in east north. He meets with the chapter frequently.

CHARLES S. PowELL, of the Vanderbilt Mus; passed through Cincinnati en route for Ann Arbor, where he enters the University. Brother Powell stopped to interview the managers of the paper and to leave a goodly list of subscribers for the new year.

LEVI F. GRIFFIN, Esq., Lambda, of Detroit, has recently formed a new law partnership. The style of his firm is now Griffin & W a mer. Brother Griffin was in Cincinnati not long since, when we had the pleasure of meeting him . He is a warm-hearted Beta.

WILL C. SPRAGUE, Alpha Eta, formerly one of the editorial corps of this magazine, has settled at St. Paul, Minn He is a member of the law firm of Foulke & Sprague. Brother Sprague is, among other things, actively interested in mobilizing the Beta forces of the northwest . He is the authorized agent of the BETA THETA PI for Minnesota and the surrounding country .

PRESIDENT W. H. ScoTT, Beta, of the Ohio University, has been president of the Ohio State U mvers1ty, an acknowledgment of his ments and superior executive ab1hty. The union of the Ohio and the Oh10 State is next in order.

BuRT. HIRST, Theta, '86, 0. S. U., called upon Theta last week at the opening of college. Burt. brought attractions with him, hence the boys d1d not get to see much of him. He will soon be a ..resident of Pittsburgh , as his father has accepted a pulpit in that city.

THE marriage of Charles E. N Alpha Psi, to Miss Emma F. K1dwell, of Indianapolis , took place May I2th, last. An interesting account of the happy affair appeared in the Newcastle, Ind ., Courier of May r8th, and also in the Elwood Review. Brother Needham continues to reside at Newcastle.

REv. I. W JoYcE, D.D., Delta, '73, · preached the first sermon of his new pastorate at Trinity M. E. Church, Cincinnati, Sunday, . the 2yd of September. Beta Theta Pi has had a representative at Trinity almost continuously for a number of years past, brothers David H. Moore, Earl Cranston and John N Irvin having each filled this pulpit within comparatively recent years.

L. L. VAN SLYKE, Ph. D ., Lambda , . '82, assistant instructor in the chemical laboratory, was made the recipient recently, by the spring class under his charge, of a written testimonial expressive of the excellent manner in which he had taken them through qualitative chemistry. The members of the class are from the medical and dental departments, about sixty names being attached to the memorial, which bears date of May 20, 1883.Chronicle.

CHAS. H. CAREY , Alpha Eta, having graduated at the law school of the Cincinnati College la s t June, left Cincinnati for Portland, Oregon , where he purposed making his home. He was waylaid, however, at Denver, Col., by his old chaptermate, Bob Davis, and induced to settle at the latter place. He hung out his shingle at 433 Larimer street, but only remained for a short time, pulling up stakes to proceed to his first intended destination, · Portland, where he now holds forth.

E. P. SAMPSELL, Theta, '84, has latelySeptember 13th- entered the matrimonial way in company with Miss Kittie Hyatt, of Delaware. They will reside at "Dick's" previous home upon North Sandusky street. All Betas will receive a hearty welcome at their lovely home.

REv. E · . ]. BROWN has recently sent the board of directors his file of the BETA THETA Pr, a gift which is much prized. There are a few numbers missing; as soon as these are received the entire set will be bound, and placed in the archives of the fraternity. Among the missing numbers are 1 and z, of Vol. I. Any member having these numbers to spare from his files will confer a great favor by sending the same to this office.

ONE ot the pleasan test visits Lambda has enjoyed during the year was that of Lee C. Hascall, Upsilon, ' So. He came to see to see the boys every evening for a week; but one of Lambda's P. G.'s "took him around" one Sunday afternoon, and we haven't seen him since. Lambda ·is lost in bewilderment to know what became of him, and why he did not come around to bid the boys good -bye the night before his departure. it in the air "

EV. S. F. ScovEL, Iota, late pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Pittsburgh, has been elected president of Wooster U niversity. Dr. Scovel joined the fraternity at Hanover, Ind. The following is an of his subsequent career: Pastor, Presbyterian Church, Jeffersonville, Ind., r857-6o; Springfield, 0, r86r-65; Pittsbmgh, Pa., since r866 . He was in the service of the Christian Commission, r864; has been a contributor to The Christian Statesman; Presbyter and Herald, Pittsburgh Evening Chronicle, New Englander. He has taken an active interest in educational matters, having served as trustee of Western Theologicel Seminary, Western U niversitv, Pennsylvania Female Seminary and Washington and Jefferson College. His call to the new and responsible position is a well merited recognition of his ability as a thinker, a writer and a ripe scholar.

LEIDEN, June 27, 1883. Frank M Joyce, Esq.:

D EAR Sm-Send me . the pape r ! I must have the BETA THETA Pr! Why, I have not heard anything of Betadom for two months! Something terrible must have happened to Omega, for I have not had a word from any of the boys. * * * Do you know of any Betas studying at Berlin, Heidelberg or Strasburg ? I am especially anxious to hear if there are any in the · latter place, as I expect to spend the next two years there, studyinochemistry. How nice it would be have a real, genuine tJoPrl A fine, big one! and fat! If any of the boys come to Germany, they must call upon me. Any one wearing a Beta pin may be sure of a hearty welcome

Yours in wt -, James L. De Frcmery.

P. S.- Although I shall probably leave week for Strasburg, my address, for convenience sake, will remain Leiden, Netherlands.

Brother Gibson writes from St. Paul: Business Managers B eta Tlzeta Pi: DEAR BROTHERS-Your circular came to hand zoth inst. Having lately returned to civilization, after a two years' absence on the frontier. in Colorado and Montana, I feel like 1:enewing my acquaintance with "W ooglin's worshipers" through the. columns of your valuable magazine. Since leaving Colorado, June zd, r88z, I have not had the pleasure of gi·asping the hand of a Beta. While there I was associated with Brothers W ]. Smith and R G. Withers in engin e ering work, the former of Beta Delta, Cornell, the latter of Alpha Theta, V. M. I. We passed many happy hours together while camping on the rolling plains of southern Colorado; happier for having been members of the grand old fraternity of Beta Theta Pi. Your circular called back many happy memories, for I still feel that "All parties, all denominations, all sections are one, and the same W oogliil is to all." Enclosed please find my subscription to BETA THETA Pr for the coming year.

Yours in xa( , A. M Gibson.

The Saratoga convention a standing committee on alumna! orgamzation to act during the coming year. The work of this committee is a most important one. To it is appointed the duty of directing and assisting in the orgam: zation of our already great body of alumm and bringing them more than ever into that intimate fraternal association which it is the peculiar mission of our fraternity to perpetuate. The college fraternity, beautiful in its friendship , noble in its aspirations , its spirit welling up from the purest depths of the human heart, its ideals lofty , its membership chosen, its associations formed amid halls of learning and intellectual pursuits, is but the embryo of that great fraternity that shall one day encompass the world, replacing even those brilliant and powerful brotherhoods, whose origin, indeed, reaches back to antiquity, but at whose base lies no beautiful inspiration such as that which fills breasts of those who have truly learned the lessons of our own fraternity. Fanaticism , self-p rotection, the promotion of mechanical arts, afforded a basis of association which, under the modifying and softening influences of time, has been extended to include many beautiful ideas and practical truths connected with man's communion with his fellows.

But humanity has grown with the ages; it is ever reaching upward,; its ideals become more spiritual, its be liefs more liberal; free from tyranny and oppression it first tends to break all bonds of association, then, joyous in the new-found freedom, gathers again under the glad sky of a more intelligent , a nobler brotherhood. There are les so ns lying almost forgotten in the hearts of those who once gathered, full of earnestness, beneath the shelter of Beta Theta Pi. Years have passe? since the first inspiration grew, but d1ed away from want of nourishment. It must be re-created, breathed again into th ose hearts , until the warm pulsations a.re felt stronger than ever, and lasting until the end of time. This is the soul's view of the work; the practical duties the methods, the active details of alumnai organization, are the difficult and important matters that must absorb the minds

of those who are enlisted in this mission. But no committee , however great its powers, however unlimited its authority, can accomplish the desired work. It is the self-appointed) indi v idual , unceasing labor of Betas in every community that must carry u s forward upon the path we have entered. The true inspiration, the true aims of the fraternit y must be published to' the minds of its members with persistent effort: but the practical, tangible, working machinery of a strong organization must be created and perfected . Objects be yond the idealitie s of fraternal love and friendship must be made the vehicles of fraternity zeal. Not alone attractiveness, but substantial worth and a real purpose must be developed. Alumnal associations, in stead of the feeble, glimmering lights that the y have been heretofore, must be established for an end-they must be maintained for a purpose. The college organization is now too strong to ever die. It will care for itself nobly, and constantl y increa se in strength. The greatest work for the immediate future lies among the a1umni.

Providence.

The first me e ting for th e seco nd year of the Providence Alumni Association was held at the Narragansett, September 18th, where the name only of the chairman of the banquet committee need be given for one to be assured th at the banquet would be ample and sa tisfactory. For the sake of the chairm an, who is a modest man, and for one other reason, we will no"t give his name the publicity it so justly deserves.

The usual routine of business was transacted, the items of chief interest being the addition of five new men from the graduating class of '83, Brown University, to the roll of the chapter, and the report of the delegates to the Saratoga convention.

The election of chapter officers was held at the last meeting in June, when the same board was re-elected.

Will Cumback , of Indiana , who was in the city, was invited to be the guest of the chapter, but was obliged to decline on account of an engagement to ad-

dress a meeting that evening in Music Hall.

The next meeting of the chapter will be held October r6th, to which all Betas, who may chance to be in the city, are cordially invited. Farther particulars as to time and place may be had from A. P. Hoyt, at the First National Bank. W.H.T.

M innesota.

Pursuant to call the resident members of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity met on the evening of September 28th, and effected an organization to be known as the Minnesota Association of the Beta

Theta Pi. A constitution was adopted and officers elected as follows:

PRESIDENT-Gen. Geo . L. Becker, St. ·Paul. VrcE -PRKSIDENTs-H. A 0' Dell, Minneapolis, and E A Jaggard, St. Pau l.

SECRETAKY-W C. Sprague, St Paul.

TREASURER-C. H. Dixon, Minneapolis.

ExECUTIVE CoMMITTEE- Becker, Sprague, Dixon, C. '1'. Thompson, and S. L. Baker.

STANDING ON MEMBERSHIP-Chas. B. Holmes, Rev . M . D. Shutter, of Minneapolis; H. H. Miller and H . C. Mead, St. Paul.

It is the purpose of the Minnesota association to hold their first annual meeting and banquet the first Thursday m December, and annually thereafter.

SONG OF THE SILVER GRAY.

One evening I was sitting

Where the shadows dark were flitting

Round my head, like shades of Erebus on occult missions bent,

When the bending boughs above, me

Whispered in my ears, "We love thee," And the evening star smiled sweetly in the darkening occident.

On the air a song was pealing,

And its joyous notes were swelling

O'er the murmurings of Nature's children sinking into sleep,

And the words tbe song was singing

Floated like the glad bells' ringing

When the echoes roll across the heaving bosom of the deep.

Oh, I listened to tlie gladness

Of that song, so fr e e from sadness, And my heart was filled with happiness while tears stood in my eye, For, as I heard the ending,

With my soul its echoes blending, I knew it was the glorious song of Beta Theta Pi.

Ah, my youth then rose before me, And the memories sweet stole o'er me

Of the days when in our little hall I helped to sing that song;

When the star of Hope shone brightly

And the cares of life sat lightly, And my heart was filled with thoughts that to the spring of life belong

Then before me rose the faces

Of my comrades in their places, As we sat around our table like Deipnosaphists of old,

Mingling wisdom with our feasting While from study's labor resting, And enjoying as the heart that knoweth not can ne'er be told.

Oh, the bonds of friendship welded, And the faith that then was builded On the solid rock of love fraternal, as the sun;

Oh, the hearts that grew together, One soul blended with another, That shall never more be parted till the race of life is run. •

In life helping one another, Brother kindly aiding brother, Giving sympathy to sorrowful and weeping with the sad, We are nearing now life's ending, Anrl, with souls forever blending, We shall enter wh ere the sorrowing shall ever more be glad.

And, in that home supernal, Will we not, with love eternal, Ever strive to aid our brothers in their struggles here below, And, with loving inspiration, Give their hearts an intimation or the care and loving kindness that with time shall stronger grow?

In the infinite dimensions

Of that house of many mansions We shall meet in mystic circle, and our vows again renew ; And as each grips with the other, An et ernal Beta brother, Loud shall peal a song of gladness, swelling with a meaning new. SOLON LOUER.

THE COLLEGES.

PROF. MARSH, of Yale College , has been made a member of the German Academy of Sciences.

THE $zoo,ooo debt of North-Western University has been cleared off. The university is now free from all encumbrance.

PROF. KIMPTON, of Boston University, has been compelled to resign on account of impaired health.

CoMMENCEMENT exercises are held one month earlier at the University of California than :n eastern colleges.

] AMES S. GREENOUGH, of Providence, has been elected president of Amherst Agricultural College, in place of the late Dr. Chadbourne.

REv. H. G. MITCHELL, Ph D., has been appointed professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Exegesis in the school of theology, Boston University.

THE total endowment of the U niversity of California is four millions of dollars, instead of two millions, as stated in the last nu mber of this paper.

PRoF. GouLD, of Williams College, goes to Olivet College, and is succeeded by Herbert Weir Smith, a recent graduate of Harvard and Grettingen U niversities. ·

A. S. PACKARD, D.D., of Bowdoin College, has assumed the duties of president for one year in place of President Ch;;tmberlain, whose resignation was given at the last commencement. Prof. Henry L. Chapman has been elected dean of the faculty.

THE new law school of Harvard is to be com?leted this fall. The building is of brown stone with light trimmings, and is worthy of the fine site which it occupies. -v.·ork has been progressing rapidly ort the new physical laboratory, a description of which will appear later.

HARVARD's largest class to enter was '86, numbering 284 men; and the la rgest class to graduate wa s '83 with 205, no men being conditioned during the s enior year.

THE boating at Harvard has made a perfect record during the past summer, the university crew winning the races with Yale and Columbia, and the freshmen crew beating the Yale freshmen.

DENISON UNIVERSITY opened with over ninety new student s , and the chapel is crowded. There is the largest attendance for a dozen years. In the department of physics and chemistry Prof. I. J. Osborne is making a great success.

THE gymnasium of Williams College, recently erected, was completely demolished in the gale of wind during commencement week. The funds have been raised for rebuilding. Salarie s at Williams have raised as follows: President's from $3,500 to $4,000, and profes s ors $300 each.

THE trustees of Denison University, at their commencement session , decided to change the name of the institution back to Granville College as soon as practicable, and also to raise an additional $Ioo,ooo-$zs ,ooo being for a new building, $25,000 to found scholarships, and $5o,ooo for permanent endowment.

REv. DR. GEo. S. WILLIAMSON SMITH, formerly chaplain of the United States Navy, enters upon his duties as president of Trinity with the present term. The students of Trinity College have abandoned their old colors for those of the University of California, blue and gold. The change is to be regretted, as the old colors-green and white-bore a significance, being those used in the Trinity season, w bite being the ecclesiastical color for Trinity Sunday, and green for the remainder of the season.

The following interesting article is a part of a voluminous publication made by the San Francisco Chronicle upon the occasion of the twenty-second triennial conclave of the Knights Templar of the United States of America, held in the city of San Francisco during the month of August. The subject treated of is one which, while it does not relate directly to college fraternities , will be found of interest to our readers because it is so ably handled and contains a classical dissertation upon an institution which is more or less the architype of all existing secret societies, except the American college fraternity.

This exception is made with a due consideration of the fact that somewhat of the machinery and the idea of association as represented in the college fraternity is an exemplification of masonry; but there is a basis of brotherhood and a purely original fountain of inspiration beneath the American college fraternity that makes it its own architype. Learning, literature, youthful associations , unselfish, unalloyed friendship, intellectual aspirations, high ideals of manhood, student life in all its never-ending phases, have furnished upon American soil the foundation and the inspiration of a magnificent fraternity which, when it is as old as masonry, will be more powerful and will trace its origin to a higher source.

Researches into the question of the connection between the old knights templar and the early masons are still mooted; the intimacy between the order and craft of to-day is well recognized. Indeed, a man to be a knight templar now must be a freemasort.

In attempting to sound the origin of freemasonry-the most extraordinary statements are met with. One or two, which may be instanced as typical, are that Adam and Eve held the first lodge in the Garden of Eden; that the patriarch Noah founded masonry after the deluge; that Zoroaster instituted masonry in Asia; that Jesus and the Essenians were freemasons in Palestine; that the Caliphs practiced the masonic mysteries and communicated them to the chevaliers of the temple, etc The generally-accepted legend is as follows:

Hiram, architect of the Temple of Solomon, divided his workmen into the three following classes, over which he presided: Apprentices, companions or comrades, and masters. After the death of this architect, Solomon preserved the s ame organization, that he might the .better conclude the works of the temple, and accorded it numerous privileges. From Palestine this organization spread into all the ancient world, and so, it is claimed, masonry grew until it has become the power it is to-day. On the other hand, there are many who claim that this legend, at the best, is but one of comradeship, or guild. Hiram, it is asserted, is a fantastic personage , concerning whom history is mute, for the Hiram whom the Bible mentions is a founder of metals and not an architect, while, if the Bible is to be believed, he only assisted in the ornamentation of the temple when it was already built and only when a large portion of the metallurgic work had been done. The attempt has been sometimes made to substitute Adoniram for Hiram, but here Biblical history steps in again and shows that Adoniram was only an overseer of the wood-choppers who worked among the cedars of Mount Lebanon. As a matter of fact, there are but few serious masons to -day who hesitate to admit that the existence of Hiram is a myth, and that the story of the builder of. the temple throws very little light upon the problem of the origin of the institution.

There are, however, many honest, zealous masons who, anxious for an illustrious genealogy to their craft, claim that masonry descends from the ancient" mysteries" of paganism , secretly transmitted from age to age down to the present day But here the question arises, What are these same mysteries of antiquity, and from which of them has masonry descended? Is it the descendant from the "mysteries" of the sanctuaries of India, or from those of Egypt or Greece? From those of Thrace, Lemnos or Eleusis? Is it the offspring of those mysteries which were vaunted by Cicero, or which have baffled Lucien and Apulle? What, indeed, is known of these ancient mysteries, except a few generalities, more or less trust -

worthy; and in what way is the "doctrine" of these mysteries reproduced by masonry? It seems, indeed, but a poor argument in favor of this origin of masonry to claim that it has anything in common with the ceremonies of Isis, Ceres or of Proserpine; with the sacred car of Bacchus, the Dionysian phallus, the Mithrian bulls, or the tests of the four elements. It is true that certain of these old practices are reproduced in the rites of certain modern masons, but it can not be seriously asserted that they are used as anything more than a theatrical decoration, and the English, to whom we are really indebted for masonry, have had the good sense to keep · their rituals unsullied with the pitiable juggleries with which certain lodges are embellished.

Still another theory of origin is that held by those who believe that masonry grew ou.t of the chivalry of the middle ages. This is a very pretty belief, but it is met by the difficulty of placing credence in the idea that these knights and gentlemen of a time when nobility was the first requisite should invent an apprenticeship, a companionship and a mastership, with an apron, compass, square, mallet and trowel as accompaniments.

There are, again, serious thinkers who have set the origin of masonry with the corporations of workmen (collegia arti.ftcum) created by Numa 715 B C. According to Rebold: " These corporations were established by him (Numa) as civil and religious societies, holding the exclusive privilege of building the temples and public monuments. They embraced all the arts and trades necessary to architecture, religious, civil, hydraulic and military, and were composed of men the most eminent of the epoch and the best versed in the sciences. By the protection which these colleges of constructors accorded to foreign institutions, doctrines and maxims far beyond their time were developed symbols and emblems were made 'use of: and a system of words and signs of recognition came into existence. After the retreat of the Romans from Great Britain, A. D. 426, when the powerful Latin republic was trembling to its base, these corporations were forced to dissolve and separate into different societies according to their trades or callings. .It is from these new corporations that are issued those federations of the arts and trades of the ages . Of all the disintegrated

guilds, that of masons, architects, sculptors and stone-cutters, as the most important corporation, alone preserved its privileges, its ancient organizations, its artistic secrets, and its traditional mysteries. It is to these corporations, known in England since the third century as freemasons, that Europe owes those grand conceptions, those magnificent cathedrals, and those gigantic basilicas which are still our admiration and our despair.

"This freemasonry of the middle ages ( 1025- 1500 ), called sometimes Brothers of St. John - not the Knights of St. Johngradually disappeared on the continent, but continued to maintain a strong hold in England, where kings continued to be the head of the association in the character of grand masters or protectors. The extended attainments of the members, initiated into all the arts; their humanitarian principles, their tolerance and their mysterious organization, encompassed them in country for many centuries with so much consideration that a number of distinguished men applied to be and were admitted as honorary members. These applicants grew so that from the seventeenth century the association consisted mainly of honorary or accepted masons, with but a few architects, sculptors and active or freemasons. The original plan of the organization had died out; the organization was dying out itself; the factions or lodges met rarely except to elect annual officers and dine, until, in 1717, but four lodges existed in London. These four lodges, foreseeing the death of this noble institution, unique in the history of the world by its works and principles, unless some extraordinary means were taken to revive it, united t}:lemselves in one and a new body, with the view of transforming the old organization into one which should contain its moral principles and at the same time perpetuate the antique philosophic symbolism."

So says Rebold, and he approaches more nearly the solution of the problem of origin than any one else. It seems a pity, however, that this ingenious author should search out N uma (an imaginary 1 personage) and his collegia artijicum (which has never been known of), to attribute to them a scientific, humanitarian and religious organization. To do this, to give them symbols, words, legends and allegories, is but to make a romance out of simple history. It is true that there

were corporations of freemasons in the middle ages - history teaches us that such was the case- but history does not teach us that these corporations were any different from the other workingmen brotherhoods, nor that they had any doctrines peculiar to themselves. The plain facts of the case, notwithstanding Rebold's interesting work, of which only a precis has been given above, appear to be these: Up to the twelfth century there is no record at all that these bodies were ever organized with statutes and rules. That these bodies existed before then there is equally no doubt; they had indeed their divisions, degrees, etc. The companions, for instances, were divided into transients and strangers. There was a powerful hierarchy, and the society certainly did include aspirants, young men, masters, affiliated, received, finished and initiated. They had their emblematical soubriquets, their usages, their ceremonies, patron saints, canes and flowered ribbons. But all these prove no mysteries, and were only the attributes and ceremonies of a trade federation.

The salient and tangible facts in the history of these federations in the middle ages, then, are very few. It is known that a large number of masons came into France from Lombardy about the tenth century. From these it was learned that there were in Italy corporations the members of which, after having passed various degrees of apprenticeship, became magisti comancini, and had the right to exercise their calling wherever they pleased and on their own account. It is a matter of record, also, that in many kingdoms the sovereigns accorded freemasons certain privileges, and that the Popes gave them franchises for the Catholic countries which they intended visiting. Masonic lodges grew in number. Then came the greq.t political troubles which culminated at Constantinople at the time of the Iconoclasts, and which had the effect of sending many Greek artists to Italy to swell the number of working masons ahd to teach them the details of the Byzantine order of architecture. History has it also that these Italian corporations spread themselves over Germany, France and England, where they placed themselves almost exclusively under the service of the religious orders, and built up the churches which now adorn Europe. It is known, too, that what at first added to the con-

sideration and stability of the institution of freemasonry was the number of priests, and prelates even., who thought it an honor to belong to the organization

Larousse states authoritatively that it was only after the arrival of the Lombardian masons that the French workmen to organize themselves upon the Itahan and German model. This model was not, however, the strange and mystical arrangement which many would have us believe. The brothers were bound together by a common-sense tie of hospitality, and go?d offices, an arrangement which permitted them to make their long journeys at little expense and in security. Wherever they worked they had a to oversee them, and they worked m groups of ten men, directed by a master mason. They camped around the edifices they were building as long as it was in process of construction; then, the work being finished, left to seek their fortunes elsewhere. Sometimes the people seconded them in their work by carting material, or the lords encouraged them with gifts of money and victuals. It must not be understood, however, that every freemason was a nomad. From all time there was a floating mass of workmen journeying hither and thither in search of work, but the principal towns and cities of France conta.ined workmen known by a title of organization, united in corporation with governing laws and. enjoying the rights of citizenship. Between all the brothers of masonry there· existed · a powerful tie, and it is to this brotherhood and this widespread principle of help that the striking analogy that exists between the monuments of the various European countries is to be as-. cribed. Thus one may see towers at Vienna, Munich and Cologne which forcibly recall the marvelous steeples of Strasburg. •This astonishing similarity between monuments is alone obse'rvable in those architectural works which date from the middle of the thirteenth century. Hope, in his "History of Architectm·e," says truly :

"The architects of all the religious edifices of the Latin church gathered their science from one central school. They obeyed the laws of the same hierarchy;· the same principles of arrangement and: taste were followed; they kept up an assiduous correspondence wherever they were, so that the slightest new idea be-

came instantly the property of the entire body and a new conquest of art."

But while the brothers were obhged to adhere to a general plan, it appears that each mason was allowed to follow his own inspiration in the matter of details of decoration. It is impossible to deny that to the institution of freemasonry and to the tie which bound its members is due the rapid progress of architecture. Thus, thanks to the noble emulation which existed even before the period of Gothic architecture, these masons knew perfectly how to calculate the weight and pressure which the arcades and vaults would support, the resistance of the buttresses, the form of the pinnacles, arches and parapets, and so could assure to the a long endurance. The supreme directiOn was naturally in the hands of the architects, but these were never outside the great masonic body. Thus Robert de Luzarches and Regnault de Connont directed the work of the Cathedral of A miens. We owe the Sainte Chappele of Paris to the celebrated master, Pierre de Montereau. It was an architect of the masons, named Libergier, who built the Cathedral of Rheims ; the famous Jean de Chelles who built the transept of Notre Dame of Paris; and, finally, Erwin de Steinbach and his son John who organized the genius of the German freemasonry and directed the work on the Cathedi·al of Strasburg, rightly regarded as the masterpiece of the freemasons. These are some of the monuments of the freemasons of the middle ages, the grandest that were ever reared and the undying exhibitions of a dead art. Until some such association again comes into existence, raising these epics in stone, the towering grandeurs of Europe will never be repeated. It is scarcely a wonder that with these magnificent results of their daring art before the world the freemasons should have received franchises and privileges without number. Rome only they obeyed as master. They paid no taxes, municipal or signorial, fixed their own salaries, and were indeed freemasons.

But just as Alexander had to cease conquering, so the freemasons could not go on building forever. In England in the seventeenth century, notwithstanding the British tenacity for the observance of old customs, freemasonry began gradually to decay. There was always some lord, or

count or duke, who was willing to act as ·president of the dying order, but both in London and York-its two great headquarters-operative masonry fell into ruins. The old members seldom met, no new members were received. Sir Christopher Wren was grand master, but, borne down by age a nd infirmities, he could not attend to the duties of his position and lodge after lodge went out of existence. The last effort of operative masonry was in 1695, when King William was initiated and superintended the construction of the modern portion of Hampton Court.

At last the old lodge of St. Paul and three others were the only ones that resisted the fatal decadence. Seeing death from inanition inevitable unless something unusual were done, this remnant decided, in the year A. D. 1717, that the privileges of masonry should no longer be confined to working masons, but that persons of diverse professions should be initiated and taken to the of the order. Here, then, 166 years ago, operative masonry may be said to have ended and speculative masonry, which is the masonry of to-day, may be said to begin. The principles of this new masonry were the amelioration, moral and material, of men; law, progress, humanity, philosophic ideas of tolerance, fraternity, equality and liberty; the acceptance of every fellow-member as a brother without regard to religious or political faith, nationality or social distinction. From London this new growth of freemasonry spread to York, penetrated the lodges of Wales, passed into Scotland, crossed the channel and so spread all over Europe and the world.

The antiquity of the present school of masonry goes no further than that. It was founded in 1717, and only from and after that can be found the reliable records of the foundation , of a masonic lodge, whether in Berlin or Patagonia, :New York or Bengal, Turin or Valparaiso. The only other great event in the history of freemasonry was the formation of the new constitution of the Grand Orient in 1865; but that constitution was really nothing more than the elaboration and formulation of those principles of progressive philosophy, brotherly kindness and general humanity which have already been referred to. But though of recent origin, the new masonry has had a wonderful growth, and from that small meet-

ing of London craftsmen has come a society that has had the best men of the world on its member-roll, that has spread to every part of the earth, and that counts its disc!ples by the millions.

It would be scarcely possible to conclude an · article, however cursory, on freemasonry, without some reference to the secrets of the order and the mysteries of the lodge. " We live in an epoch," says Larousse, writing on this subject, "in w hieh it is very difficult to hold as secret the constitution of a society. This secret has, above all, the chance of being badly kept when it belongs to an institution which appeals only to the · intelligence of its members, and which can neither frighten the perjurers by fear of corporal punishment nor eternal damnation. It is simply child's play now to talk of the terrible mysteries of freemasonry. One need only buy the works of Clave!, Ragon, or a 'manual,' to learn all the words, signs and hand-touches of each grade, while the 'catechism' will teach all this by its questions and answers. All these and a score of other works can be bought at the bookstores that make a specialty of such publications, and who no more think of inspecting the diplom(ls of the purchasers than the restaurateur asks for the certificate of marriage from those who use ' his private rooms. Not only can the formulas of the ritual of the society be purchased, but those who are curious to know what goes on in the lodges can easily satisfy that curiosity by securing and perusing the various magazines, periodicals and papers which are incessantly published, and which furnish extracts and reports of discussions, discourses and proceedings, without any attempt at concealment."

Those, too, who can secure an inspection of that curious work, " An Exposition of the Mysteries of Masonry," by John Fellows, A.M , will find their search rewarded by a description of the rites of initiation into the various degrees which can -scarcely be considered seriously, but which will amply repay perusal. Here, for is the way in which an applicant is initiated into the Royal Arch degree : Having been blindfolded in an adjoining room, the neophyte is brought into the chapter and made to pass under the living arch, which is formed by a number of companions arranging themselves on both sides of the door, each join-

ing hands with the one opposite. The conductor passes all right, crying, " Stoop low, brother," but when the candidate tries to pass under, the brothers come down on him with all their weight, prod<!_ing him behind with something sharp, to make him crawl all the quicker. He is then led around the chapter and made to kneel before the image of a burning bush, while the companions make a tremendous noise, firing pistols, clashing swords, overturning chairs, rolling cannon balls across the floor, etc. In the midst of this hubbub the candidate is thrown down, bound, dragged out of the room and the door slammed to . Again he is brought in and made to pass under the living arch and then conducted over the " rugged road, " made of old benches, blocks of wood, etc. Then he is lowered into a dark cave, and so on, until the reader hesitates whether John Fellows, A.M., is a lunatic, or whet,her he is telling the truth on a set of mummers.

The antique mystery of masonry has, in fact, died out, and no one is more willing to acknowledge this than the sensible, well -educated mason of to-day. :t;Jo better proof of this can be furnished than that found in an extract from the revised constitution of the Grand Orient of r865. There and then it was decided that " the masonic propaganda by word of mouth, writing and good example is recommended to all masons, " and as a necessary consequence of this precept it is stated further on that " every mason has a right to publish his opinion upon masonic questions."

Notwithstanding these unanswerable statements, it is, nevertheless, a fact that there are certain incredulous or mischievous people who, for love of the mysterious or through hatred of ma s onry, obstinately persist in affirming that the society has some great and terrible secret which all its members are not admitted to, and which the simple masters are themselves ignorant of. If this be so, it can neither harm nor improve the s ociety, and as it is possessed by so few, it can neither work well nor ill to the world. If the stupendous secret exists, masonry can bid be heartily welcome to it by a world which sits in open school at the feet of those magicians-steam and electricity.

If the assertion that the proceedings of the lodge can be easily ascertained be thought too general, a few words more in

particular may be added. c ertain lodges, then, where the d1stnbuhon of benefices, and the reception of adepts to the different grades are the only serious occupations. In others the better instructed and more zealous members institute a course of lectures and invite conferences upon the law, hygiene, social economy, etc. Here philosophic questions, there social problems, are taken up and discussed with a freedom explained by the intimate character of the reunions and the mutual confidence between speaker and audience Here, for example, is the programme of questions which formed the order of the day in certain prominent lodges not long ago : To define the distinctive character of the masonic institutions ; discussion on the general causes of prostitution ; study on education; research on the basis of equality; the influence of masonry on the father of a famiJy ; dissertation upon the march of

progress ; on justice in the family ; on the reconciliation of capital with labor ; the encouragement which should be accorded primary education ; the vulgarization of masonry, etc. .

But outside of their work s and duties there is in all the lodges a work , l a tent, incessant, more profitable than the mo s t scientific and brilliant course-th e p a cific and fraternal contact of men animat e d by a like spirit of progr es s , belonging to all honest profe s sion s, taking each other by the hand and standing together to accomplish the same eminently moral and humanitarian work, forgetting those factitious division s created by the exigencies of society, loving and e s teeming each other, and all mutually engaging to do good. The freema s on who comprehends the aim of the institution becomes really a better man, and spreads about him the principles of tolerance, of progress , and of mutual obligation.

OUR BUSINESS DEPARTMENT.

[This department is in charge of the Business Managers, and will be devoted e xclu•ively to the busin e ss intP.rests of the paper. All notices and announcements of a business character will be inserted at a charge of ten cents per line. Address, BUSINESS MANAGERS BETA THETA PI, 137 W. Nmth street, Cincinnati, Ohio.]

To the chapter that shall have furnished us the largest list of paid-up subscribers at the end of this year we will present an elegantly-bound volume of the magazine and a handsome copy of the fraternity catalogue.

The photographs of the Saratoga convention may be had for $1.25 each, postage prepaid, by addressing Albion M. Dyer , Hamilton, N. Y: Every chapter should have a copy framed and hung in the chapter -hall.

Subscribers who receive, through inadvertence, more than one copy of this issue are requested either to dispose of the extra copy to some non-subscriber and remit the price, twenty-five cents, or return the magazine to Business Managers.

The law relating to the annual dues of alumni chapters was amended at the Saratoga convention. Under the new law alumni chapters pay uniform annual dues of $12. Subscriptions to the paper are not included in this as heretofore, but every member is expected to subscribe for the paper directly at the regular subscription price. ·

Extra copies of the magazine may be obtained from the business managers on

application. Single copies, twenty-five cents; a discount of twenty per cent. on orders for five or more copies.

Subscriptions to the stock of the new club-house company will be received by Messrs. W. C . Ransom, Lan s ing, Mich.; C. J. Seaman, box 26, Cleveland, 0., or S. G. Williams, box 498, Cincinnati. Full particulars given on application. As stated elsewhere in a special notice, . the subscription price of the BETA THETA PI, after November Ist, will be $z.oo . per annum. This is in accordance with the unanimous expression of the last conven- · tion. Special club rates will be as follows: For six copies, $10; for ten copies, $I 5· This will afford the opportunity for chapters to obtain the magazine at a considerable reduction. Clubs may easily be formed to include alumni. The business management ask the chapters and all alumni to assist in increasing the circulation of the magazine. Every facility will be afforded to those who will engage in the work. The BETA THETA PI should and can have the largest constituency of any fi·aternity publication, and the Business Managers will do everything, with the assistance of chapters and individual members, to swell the subscription list to the utmost. Three thousand bona fide subscribers should be the number for this year, with a continuous increase hereafter.