1905-06 Volume 30 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

THE SCROLL. 37Smore inspiring principles and policies than those whichgoverned and characterized the Mystic fraternity.The Mystic badge was of gold and of a very unique design.It had seven points, each bearing a Hebrew letter, and, surroundedby a serpent were engraved seven stars, a comet, acrescent and a cauldron. On the reverse were a sword andthe name of the owner. \ couplet from Shakespeare:Double, double, toil and trouble,Fire burn and cauldron bubblewhich had a striking application to the principles of thefraternity, was prominent in all of our literature. There wasa requirement upon every member that he should prepareweekly a literary composition or criticism, also there was aweekly manuscript paper, called the Cauldron, edited in turnby each member in alphabetical order, in which were depart-THE BAD(;K OF MYSTICALSEVEN.ments of fraternity news, college news, local, state and generalnews. .\ll the papers presented at each meeting, wereturned over to other members by the writers for criticism,and the smallest inaccuracy in orthography or grammar, orany mistakes in dates or misstatements of facts, were readout at the next meeting. We had no public celebrations excepta septennial address from one of our alumni members,by Hon. H. S. Harris, '47, during my term in college.As a minor feature of our ritual, we magnified our symbolicnumber seven, often mentioned in the Scriptures andamong nations of antiquity. We studied the lives of theseven wise men, the seven cardinal Christian virtues, theseven wonders of the world, the seven years of the RevolutionaryWar, the seven days of the week, the seven stars, theseven sleepers of an ancient legend, and manj- other sevenswhich I cannot remember. .\s a defunct institution, I have