1903-04 Volume 28 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

256 THE SCROLL.this privilege was granted to him *'on the condition that heshould use all his means.for the connection of the A «^ withour association." The history continues:It does not appear that A # had any very restrictive rules about membershipin those days, permitting a man to associate with them although connectedwith other fraternities, simply demanding that he should not be connectedwith any other order in the same college where affiliation with A $ wasdesired. This anomalous condition prevailed generally in Greek-letter societiesin the days of their incipiency, for the connectional idea was little understood,if at all, and the joining of a fraternity meant little to a man exceptthe pleasant companionship with congenial fellows through the short yearsof his college course. In fact, the larger, and, as we believe, the true ideaof fraternity life is the product of the last twenty or at most twenty-five years.Letters were received from a member of A «l> in which propositionswere tentatively made for a union of "^ K ^ with theolder and more powerful fraternity." This, it seems, was in1853; it was "previous to the permission of the chapter toMoore to connect himself with the A * at Union." A $ hadseven chapters while * K * had only one, yet $ K * wantedto do the absorbing—it did not want to be absorbed itself.The discussion was spirited, not to say bitter on the A # proposition, butwas finally ended with the decisive vote of the entire chapter, with the exceptionof one man, to reject all overtures and maintain a separate existence.The member who was so eager for union with A 4> withdrew in anger fromthe chapter and afterward joined a chapter of another fraternity at JeffersonThe old A 4» pro{)osition came up again, this time the matter being urgedby the chapter of A •!» at Princeton. The formal negotiation began in November,1854, and dragged along until the late winter. Under date of February,1855, ^^ *^"*^ the ultimatum of Pennsylvania Alpha, to the effect that if A "5^did not take the graduate members of # K '4', negotiations should be brokenoff. From all evidence to be obtained, this position was adhered to, and# K •^^ entered upon her independent career, and the impetus given to thefraternity by the narrow escape from absorption, through the intense enthusiasmof those who did not favor the project, carried # K •^ far beyond thestage where it would be possible for it to submit to the swallowing process,at least in the role of victim.'The foregoing account of the courtship of $ K * by A