The Free lance. (State College, Pa.) 1887-1904, October 01, 1888, Image 8

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    have deep founded arguments in our favor, and
be open to conviction. We are aware that party
as well as religious prejudices arc inherent parts
of our nature, therefore we should try harder
to avoid them. It seems in general that the
nearer a subject is related to our wants the
more liable to prejudice we are on it. Take
religion for example. As safe rules to be
governed by we would give (1) Consider pol
itical discussion divested of all political bias.
(2) Vote in accordance with the teachings of
discussion so treated.
A FUNNY WORLD IS THIS.
Oh, this world is very funny,
For no matter how much money
Man is earning he will spend it, and be hard up all the time ;
To his utmost he is straining
To catch up without attaining,
Till he makes his life a burden when it should be bliss sublime.
He who earns a thousand merely,
Thinks two thousand dollars yearly
Would be just the 'muncrntion to make happiness complete;
But his income when it doubles
Only multiplies his troubles,
And his outgo then increasing makes his both ends worse to
meet.
It is run in debt and borrow,
Flush to-day and broke to-morrow,
Financiering every which way to postpone the clay of doom;
Spending money ere he makes it,
And then wondering what does take it,
Till he, giving up the riddle, looks for rest within the tomb
Oh this world is very funny,
To the average man whose money
Doesn't quite pay for the dancing that he does before he should:
And he kills himself by trying
Just a little higher flying
Than is suited to his pocket and his own eternal good.
FRATERNITY, A CASTE IN COLLEGE
FRATE RNITY, derived from the Latin word
fmter, meaning:brother, used in the strictest
sense signifies brotherhood. A college frater
nity consists of individuals associated and
connected by common principles, congenial
sentiments, and similar dispositions. Unhin
dered by restriction their thoughts intermingle.
THE FREE LANCE.
Opinions are reconstructed by unprejudiced
discussion. This is the theoretical fraternity,
but does the practical always follow the theo
retical ? Experience in all cases has proven
that it does. Take for an example any college
where a fraternity has flourished for several
years, and you will invariably find that that
chapter at present includes individuals of like
sentiments and similar external appearances,
as were the very founders of the chapter. Of
course, this similarity differs among chapters
of the same fraternity as well as among chapters
of different fraternities,
Nowhere as in the college can be seen such
varied forms of character, yet they soon become
sifted, some into that and others into this fra
ternity. The ministerial crowd of clerical ex
terior look with sympathy upon the easier going
members of another chapter and doubtless offer
up their nightly prayers in their behalf, while
the always-merry, take-life-easy fellows laugh
and joke at the expense of their more dignified
collegiates.
Long before the secret college fraternity came
into prominence there existed a substitute from
which the fraternity originated, "our crowd,"
with which were connected " fellows " of con
genial elements, from the rough-and-tumble set
to the bean monde,
What do all these facts develops into. The
answer is not in the least complicated. A class
of people disassociating themselves with a
higher or lower class, dealing simply with itself,
is generally considered as a caste of the strict
est kind. College fraternities therefore can
only be considered as a sort of college castes.
The next question that naturally would arise
in one's mind is, whether this sort of caste in
fluences for good or for evil. Let us see,
sonic college presidents disfavor secret college
fraternities on account of their secrecy, but the
majority of presidents antagonizing college fra
ternities in general, do so on the ground that
they tend to occupy moments which otherwise
the student might devote to studious applica-