Page 24 - 1911 November - To Dragma

TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI 21

remember, it means living with them as brothers, not just meeting
them once in a while. The motive for getting the right men has more
than loyalty back of i t ; it has personal reasons, of the kind that will
make one bestir himself i f anything on earth will.

Even i f the most desired men are not obtained the chapter must
still have someone, to keep the house going. Chapter houses are not
boarding houses, they are co-operative establishments, the financial
responsibility of which rests on the members in common. The cost
of living is reduced, for there is not a proprietor's profit to come out
of i t ; but, on the other hand, the house must be kept reasonably f u l l ,
or those attempting to maintain it will go bankrupt. The chapter
sets its standard of type of men wanted, and, frequently, is forced to
take in men not up to that rating. Result: it sets about to bring
them up to that level. Rather than lose prestige, it proceeds to
"show" the college community whether it has made a mistake or not
in its men. The chapter that can sense a "diamond in the rough,"
and develop and draw him out till he becomes the envy of the college,
elicits, as it should, the greatest admiration from its rivals. This all
depends on the chapter, and the tone or spirit which actuates it.
Chapters that spend their time throwing bouquets at themselves turn
out material that would oftentimes be quite different in another
atmosphere.

The work of the chapter house has just begun when the rushing
season is over. Then come the drill, the training, and the adjusting
of the man to the home and the home to the man. With some, the
adjustment is easy; with others, it is not. I t becomes a science; each
man has to be studied and dealt with according to his apperception,
his way of looking at things, his degree of pliability. The benefit
reacts on those doing the training, too, for they learn human nature,
learn tact, learn how to be firm yet agreeable, learn how to "get at"
a man by appealing to that part of his nature which can be touched.
The chapter house is a laboratory for the study of human nature.
Not all members avail themselves of it, to be sure, but most of them
do, and so come out of college with an understanding of humanity
and the motives that move mankind which some men do not gain in a
lifetime.

So much for the coldly practical side of chapter house life. But
that is not all. The best part has not been told. I t is a part that
one must feel to appreciate, and it cannot be described in analytical
terms. This is the sentimental side. Do not think for a moment
that sentimentality is lost sight of through the discipline and effort
of a chapter house. The discipline and effort are, after all, a side
issue, a means to an end, and that end finds its fruition, its flower,
in the realm of sentiment. Here is the difference: to tell a man he is