*College Fraternities — Secret, literary, and social organizations of students at American colleges and universities; sometimes called Greek-letter societies, because the names of nearly all of them are made up of two or three Greek letters, which are presumed to refer to mystical words or to mottoes known only to members. It is as if the Odd Fellows called themselves the “F. L. T. “ Fraternity, referring to their well-known watchwords, “Friendship, Love, and Truth.” College fraternities may be classified as general, local, professional, and women’s. There are twenty-six fraternities in the first group, which have chapters or branches in from four to sixty-four of the higher institutions of learning in the United States. Membership is confined in almost all instances to students studying the classics or those in the literary and scientific departments; membership originally was, and in a few instances to-day is, restricted to upper-class men. This has resulted in the formation of similar societies among students in professional schools, of which four have achieved prominence and a considerable membership. With the increase of institutions for the higher education of women, there have appeared nearly a dozen Greek and Roman letter secret societies for women undergraduates, half a dozen of which made themselves known beyond the walls of the colleges where they have an active existence. There are many college secret societies classed as local, that is, existing only at colleges where founded, some with Greek-letter and some with other titles, among the better known of which are the three senior class societies at Yale. If to the foregoing there be added those which have lived, shone, and left a record, American college life will be found to have given birth to almost one hundred secret societies of this particular and unique type.
The form of government prior to 1870 was weak, consisting of general supervision by a Grand, usually the parent Chapter, or by one chapter after another in turn, which made laws and regulations as it pleased, communicated the fact to the other chapters and left it to their option to obey them. But within the last quarter of a century conventions made up of delegates from chapters, with administrative bodies or councils, composed of alumni members, have had a general supervision over and management of affairs, and in leading, instances have taken the place of an imperial form of government. Annual conventions are held with undergraduate chapters, in turn, when undergraduate delegates act in the capacity of legislators, leaving the duties of all executive to the council of alumni. These reunions generally end with a banquet and formal public exercises at which distinguished members deliver addresses of welcome, poems, and orations in the presence of delegates and other undergraduate members, their relatives and friends. These exercises are rendered the more attractive because of the long list of alumni prominent in the various walks of life, who may be called on to discourse eloquently touching the fraternity and what it means to those who enjoy its privileges, or on literary and economic topics.
Membership in college fraternities includes active, alumni, and honorary; but the latter, with a few exceptions, is no longer permitted to increase, initiations being confined to undergraduates. At some of the larger cities, graduate members have established alumni chapters or clubs. The older fraternities, for they do not rank necessarily according to membership, have published accounts of their origin and growth; a number have issued elaborate and ornate catalogues, with lists of names of members arranged alphabetically by States and by colleges, with memoranda as to rank in the society or at college and biographical sketches of members distinguished in public life; not a few issue magazines and other periodicals, some of which are circulated privately. Nearly all have published music and song books of their own, in some instances have adopted distinctive colors, and in others, flowers, as having a special significance. But most important, perhaps, are college fraternity badges, almost always made of gold, sometimes enamelled, and generally set with precious stones. These are worn conspicuously by undergraduate members and by many long after leaving college. In a number of instances the badge consists of a monogram formed of the Greek letters composing the name of the fraternity; in others, of a representation of one or more emblems and in many instances of shields or rhombs, ornamented with enamelled, jewelled, or engraved letters and emblems.
The Greek-letter fraternity is unique among secret societies, in that it is the only organization of the kind founded on an aristocracy of social advantage and educational opportunity. Students have to be invited to join them, and the undergraduate who should prove so unfamiliar with college customs as to ask to join one would probably never be permitted to do so. So “secret” are the Greek-letter fraternities, or most of them, that, although wearing jewelled badges, members generally refuse to mention the organization in the presence of profanes. Instances have been known where a member of one college fraternity resigned and joined another, or was expelled and elected by a rival society, but they are like hens’ teeth. Though this does happen, the member is said to be “lifted.” A student whose acquaintance has been cultivated, has been “rushed;” when he has been asked to join, he has been “bid;” and when he has agreed to do so, he is “pledged;” when he has been initiated and appears wearing the society’s badge, he is” swung, out.” In “rushing” a man it is customary to invite him to the fraternity house, where he meets the members, who watch his conduct and his conversation. If he makes a good impression, he is invited again, taken to football games, to the theatre, and invited to social affairs, and if all are satisfied the new man is a desirable acquisition he is invited to join. After initiation the watch over a new member is kept up. He is guarded against falling behind in class work and is taught during all his first year that neither he nor his opinions are of importance. By the time he is a sophomore he has learned to make allowance for every one’s point of view.
Among about six hundred and fifty chapters of American college fraternities nearly seventy possess houses or temples valued at over $1,000,000, costing from $1,200 to $100,000. Some of them are elaborate and fanciful in design, others severely classic and still others sombre piles of brick and stone. In many instances members lodge in fraternity houses, in others out of them. The tabular exhibit on page 330 respecting some of the better known general Greek-letter fraternities is condensed from data for 1890 and 1891, furnished by William Raimond Baird in Johnson’s Encyclopedia.
The system of Greek-letter fraternities, nearly if not all of which are chartered corporations, is fitly characterized by John Addison Porter, private secretary to President McKinley, in a “Century Magazine” article, September, 1888, as “the most prominent characteristic of American undergraduate social life.” A reference to brief sketches of them will reveal the names of a few of the 125,000 members who during, the greater part of the present century have done much to add lustre to the professional, political, and business life of the Republic. The novitiate of the college fraternity soon learns to think of these men not only as brethren, but as models. President Seelye of Amherst College, in an address on June 28, 1887, said:
It is not accidental that the foremost men in college, as a rule, belong to some of these societies. That each society should seek for membership the best scholars, the best writers and speakers, the best men of a class, shows well where its strength is thought to lie. A student entering one of these societies finds a healthy stimulus in the repute which his fraternity shall share from his successful work. The rivalry of individuals loses much of its narrowness, and almost all of its envy, when the prize which the individual seeks is valued chiefly for its benefit to the fellowship to which he belongs. Doubtless members of these societies often remain narrow-minded and laggard in the race, after all the influence of their society has been expended upon them, but the influence is a broadening and a quickening one notwithstanding. Under its power the self-conceit of a young man is more likely to give way to self-control than otherwise.
Mr. Porter adds this
These “little societies” have supplied forty governers [sic] to most of the largest States of the Union, and had, in the last administration, the President of the United States and the majority of his Cabinet. On the Supreme Bench of the United States the fraternities are now (1888) represented by five of the associate justices. A summary, published in 1885, showed Alpha Delta Phi, Psi Upsilon, and Delta Kappa Epsilon, to have furnished of United States senators, 39, 25, and 36, respectively; while in the last Congress thirteen representatives and two senators were members of the last-named fraternity alone; and in the membership of these three fraternities are included twenty-four bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
In view of the foregoing, it is with amusement rather than concern that one recalls the active opposition to college secret societies between 1845 and 1885 by the faculties of a few distinguished colleges and officers of a number of other institutions of learning. This was due in part to the antipathy for all secret societies engendered in the minds of some who were close to but partly ignorant of the facts underlying the anti-Masonic agitation of from 1827 to 1840; partly to the warfare waged against secret associations of all kinds by one or two religious denominations, and to some extent, to ignorance of all that pertains to these societies, or because antagonists had been refused by or expelled from membership in such organizations, or for special reasons applying to particular instances. All of this opposition, except that at Princeton, has practically disappeared, the other colleges prohibiting Greek-letter fraternities not having either the standing as institutions of learning or the personnel among their students which would suggest the propriety of establishing chapters of these societies.
The earliest warfare of this character was at Harvard College in 1831, when John Quincy Adams and others, notably Joseph Story and Edward Everett, induced the parent Greek-letter society, Phi Beta Kappa, to make public its so-called secrets and become an open, honorary organization. It is worth recalling that in 1831 Mr. Adams was elected an anti-Masonic and Whig candidate for Congress and that he had been defeated for reelection to the Presidency three years before by Andrew Jackson, a Freemason, at a time when public feeling ran high against the Masonic Fraternity, owing to its supposed responsibility for the mysterious disappearance of one Morgan who, it was said, proposed to reveal its secrets. Mr. Adams was led to”’ hate Freemasonry,” not from any personal knowledge he had of it, but because of the attitude of politicians toward the institution who exercised a great influence over him. One result was a series of letters abusive of Freemasonry which he published in the papers between 1831 and 1833, and another evidently, was his rescuing the chapter of Phi Beta Kappa at Harvard, his alma mater from the depths of iniquity to which he evidently thought its secrecy was leading it. Associate Justice Story was professor of law at Harvard at the time, and Edward Everett, then member of Congress, was the candidate (such is the irony of fate) for the Vice-Presidency of the Constitutional Union party in 1860. The latter organization, it will be recalled, was the residuary legatee of the so-called Know Nothing party, a proscriptive, political secret society, which antagonized aliens and Roman Catholics from behind closed doors and at the ballot-box during the early fifties. [1850s] (See Know Nothing Party.) There were few chapters of college secret societies in 1831, not more than a dozen scattered throughout New England, New York, and New Jersey, and communication between them either by mail or in, person was infrequent. There was no other effect of the effort by Adams, Story, and Everett until in 1834, when a “non-secret” Greek-letter society, Delta Upsilon,* [*There is an anti-secret society called Delta Upsilon which exists at a number of colleges and grew out of a confederation of societies having their origin in opposition to the secret societies. It makes more or less point, of the alleged immorality of the secrecy of the fraternities and its chapters work with or against the fraternities as may seem to them expedient.—Baird’s American College Fraternities, New York,] was formed at Williams College. It exists to this day, with chapters in twenty-six colleges, and has many of the outward peculiarities of the secret Greek-letter fraternities. It reveals very little more of what it does than the latter, and calls itself private instead of secret. Eleven years later, 1845, the faculty of the University of Michigan demanded the disbandment of chapters of Alpha Delta Phi, Chi Psi, and Beta Theta Pi under penalty of expulsion of members and required new students to sign a pledge not to join such societies. The fight between the faculty and the few members of the then far western branches of those fraternities lasted five or six years. The members of Beta Theta Pi tried to ‘evade the rule and killed the chapter in the attempt, Alpha Delta Phi and Chi Psi fought the faculty tooth and nail, in the press throughout the State, by means of an informed and healthy public sentiment, and with the aid of Freemasons and Odd Fellows, until the rule was rescinded. Two professors were expelled from the faculty by the Board of Regents and one was allowed to resign. A new president of the university was appointed shortly after and there was no further trouble. This anti-fraternity war, almost one of extermination, was another outcome of anti-secret society sentiment created by the anti-Masonic agitation a few years before. Opposition to the Greek-letter fraternities continued to show itself at some colleges through faculty regulations prohibiting their organization, notably at the Universities of Alabama, North Carolina, and Illinois; at Oberlin and others by requiring students to sign a pledge at matriculation, not to join such societies, which was the course pursued at Princeton in 1857, at Purdue, Dennison, and elsewhere. The refusal of the University of California in 1879 to permit a chapter of one of these societies to exist roused the press of that State, and the order was speedily rescinded. At Purdue University, Indianapolis, the faculty opposed Greek-letter ‘ fraternities, on the ground that they exercised an undue influence to enlarge the classical course of studies at the expense of the scientific. A test case was made of the faculty’s refusing to admit to college a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity who was otherwise eligible. The case was taken to the Supreme Court and the college authorities were beaten,* [*Baird’s American College Fraternities ] “the fraternities” being placed by this decision “in a position entirely similar to that of other secret societies,” putting the burden of proof upon the faculty passing anti-fraternity laws, “to show that attendance -upon the meetings of a fraternity interfere with the relation of the members of the college.” The president of Purdue resigned soon after and was succeeded, strange to relate, by a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. Within the past fifteen years anti-fraternity laws have been repealed or ignored by Harvard as well as Vanderbilt, and by the Universities of North Carolina, Georgia, Iowa, Missouri, and Alabama. The secrecy of these societies is confined to so little besides privacy of meetings that it hardly calls for comment. While largely social, their aims are high and ideals lofty. Advantages secured and friendships gained through them are often among the most valuable acquisitions of the college student.
Origin and Extension. — American Greek-letter college secret societies began with the formation of Phi Beta Kappa at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va., December 5, 1776. Secret or semi-secret, as well as open, literary college societies, usually with Latin names, already existed, where debates and annual elections of officers were often the first training of the young student in public speaking and in politics. William and Mary was a successful and prosperous college one hundred and twenty-one years ago, and there it was that five young men formed a new and, as they believed, more effective students’ organization. There was already a society there with a Latin name, and as one of the five students was a good Greek scholar, it has been thought that may have suggested the propriety of a Greek-letter name. In any event, they chose a Greek motto of three words, the initials of which are Phi Beta Kappa; decided to keep the society’s proceedings secret; declared themselves a fraternity; established a few local branches, of which nothing has been heard since, and chapters at Yale and Harvard, which preserved the society and founded what has grown into a veritable world of Greek-letter fraternities. (See Phi Beta Kappa; also accompanying genealogical charts showing the order and place of establishment of earlier chapters of Phi Beta Kappa, and some of the other older Greek-letter fraternities, whether imitators of or merely inspired by a spirit of rivalry to those which preceded them.) The parent chapter of Phi Beta Kappa became dormant at the approach of Lord Cornwallis in 1781. The Yale Chapter was established in 1780, and that at Harvard a year later. These were originally the Zeta and Epsilon Chapters, Beta, Gamma and Delta having been assigned to now extinct, local, non-collegiate Virginia chapters. They subsequently became the Alphas, respectively of Connecticut and Massachusetts. From this, doubtless, arose the custom in many of the Greek-letter fraternities of designating chapters by Greek letters, the oldest in a State as Alpha, and so on. Six years later, in 1787, the Yale and Harvard Chapters took Phi Beta Kappa to Dartmouth, at Hanover, N. H., and in 1817 thirty years after, it was established at Union College at Schenectady, N. Y. It was during this thirty years’ interval that the older college literary societies flourished, many of which had Latin names, some of which are still active, but most of which have given way to the Greek-letter fraternities, except at Princeton, where Whig and Clio continue features -of student life; and at Lafayette, where Washington and Jefferson claim a large share of attention. Four years after Phi Beta Kappa was taken to Union College, a second Greek-letter fraternity was founded at Yale, manifestly suggested by Phi Beta Kappa, which had been there forty-one years. It was called Chi Delta Theta, and differed from its progenitor in that it never established branches or chapters at other colleges, but remained a local, and, more recently an honorary society, membership in it being practically an honor conferred upon the editorial staff of the Yale “Literary Magazine.” Two years later, in 1823 according to tradition, a Kappa Alpha club was formed at Union College, there being at that time no intention of making it a secret society. Whether the thought of rivalling the then comparatively widespread Greek-letter fraternity Phi Beta Kappa was the inspiration is not known, but the probabilities indicate that the second Greek-letter fraternity at Union was modelled after the first. Their names are suggestively alike and a comparison of the watchkey badges of both would seem to settle the question. In 1825 Kappa Alpha club blossomed out as a regular Greek-letter fraternity, and two years later, stimulated by a spirit of emulation, Sigma Phi was founded and within a few months Delta Phi was organized, the third at Union College, which institution has proved a veritable mother of fraternities. These three societies, the “Union Triad,” are, more than any others, except Phi Beta Kappa, responsible for the widespread interest shown during the past sixty years in this department of secret, social, and literary life at American colleges. Sigma Phi was the first to follow the example of Phi Beta Kappa by establishing chapters, its original branch being at Hamilton College, Clinton, N. Y., where it was established in 1831. Kappa Alpha was quick to follow the example, but the Hamilton students who were approached by the “Kaps” declined to become members of that society, and in 1832 founded one of their own, calling it Alpha Delta Phi. It was in 1832 also that the Yale society commonly called Skull and Bones appeared. It has continued a purely local organization, on the lines of other college fraternities, without a Greek-letter title, but with more mystery and prestige than usually surrounds a society which does not venture beyond the place of origin. It is due to Skull and Bones that what is known as the Yale secret society system differs from that at almost all other colleges. At the latter, members of a fraternity would as soon think of committing treason as join a second college society; but at Yale the sophomore joins one of the junior Greek-letter fraternities, if asked, and then lives in the unuttered hope of being invited to join one of the local senior-year fraternities. Whether successful or not, his interest in his junior society (one of the three most renowned which have chapters at the older institutions of learning) is not, as a rule, of that deep and lasting nature which characterizes members of the same society at other colleges. In 1829, three years before Skull and Bones was founded, I. K. A. (not Greek), appeared at Washington, now Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., and, like the former, has remained a local senior society ever since. In 1833 Union College gave birth to another fraternity, Psi Upsilon, which, within a few years, followed Alpha Delta Phi, which led in placing chapters in the then foremost colleges and universities. Alpha Delta Phi shocked some of the conservative spirits of 1835 by placing chapters at the University of New York and in what was then regarded as the far West, at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. In 1836 it appeared at Columbia in New York City and at Amherst in 1837 at Yale, Harvard, and Brown, and in 1838 at the Cincinnati Law School; so that within six years it possessed nine chapters as contrasted with only four chapters of Phi Beta Kappa, four of Sigma Phi, one of Delta Phi, all older societies, and as compared with two chapters of Psi Upsilon. A brief account of the local, senior-class society, The Mystic Seven founded at Wesleyan University (since absorbed by Beta Theta Pi), may be found in the sketch of the Heptasophs, or Seven Wise Men. The advent of Alpha Delta Phi at Miami resulted in the formation of Beta Theta Pi. In 1837 Psi Upsilon went to the University of New York, to Yale, and in 1840 to Brown, in which year Alpha Delta Phi was established at Hobart. In 1841 Union arose to the occasion again and gave birth to another, its fifth fraternity, Chi Psi, and in 1842, stimulated by the success of Skull and Bones at Yale, Scroll and Key made its appearance there, to choose fifteen juniors annually and divide the honors, as far as possible, with the older senior society. In 1844 a schism from the Yale Chapter of Psi Upsilon resulted in the formation of a third “junior-year fraternity” Delta Kappa Epsilon, the only living society originating at Yale which has established chapters at other colleges and has conformed to the college society system existing out of New Haven. Alpha Delta Phi, Psi Upsilon, and Delta Kappa Epsilon, for fifty years, have been closely associated in the minds of the members of the college world, and are fairly classed as the three great college fraternities. They are great rivals and number many distinguished names in professional, political, commercial, and industrial life on the lists of their alumni. A large proportion of their chapters own their own houses or temples. At most of the older Eastern and Middle State colleges and universities chapters of two of these fraternities are to be found, and at many such institutions the three meet as rivals. In the latter instance, as pointed out by Baird,* [*American College Fraternities; New York, James P. Downs, 1890.] the colleges are historic, which is due to the fact that forty years ago such colleges were the centres of the literary activity of the country.
New chapters of Alpha Delta Phi, Psi Upsilon, Delta Kappa Epsilon, and Beta Theta Pi were established with comparative frequency between 1844 and 1861, the societies ranking during that period about in the order named. During those years thirteen new college fraternities appeared to dispute supremacy, so far as possible, with those which were practically their inspiration, Zeta Psi at the University of New York in 1846; Theta Delta Chi at Union in 1847; Delta Psi at Columbia in the same year; Phi Delta Theta at Miami, and Phi Gamma Delta at Washington and Jefferson in 1848; Phi Kappa Sigma at the University of Pennsylvania in 1850; Phi Kappa Psi at Jefferson in 1852; Sigma Chi at Miami in 1855; Sigma Alpha Epsilon at the University of Alabama in 1856; Chi Phi (southern) at the University of North Carolina in 1858; another Chi Phi, this at Hobart College in 1860, and Delta Tau Delta at Bethany College in the same year. The original Southern college fraternity, “The Rainbow,” founded at the University of Mississippi in 1841, believed to have been an offshoot from the Mystical Seven of Wesleyan, did not live long. (See Order of the Heptasophs.) The Princeton and Hobart orders of Chi Phi united in 1867, and the Southern order of Chi Phi joined them in 1874, when the amalgamated orders took the name of the Chi Phi fraternity. After the Civil War there was not much opportunity for new college fraternities to compete with those already in the field, except in the South, where chapters of Northern fraternities had disappeared. As shown in an accompanying genealogical chart of these organizations, five Greek-letter fraternities were established at Southern educational institutions between 1864 and 1870: Alpha Tau Omega at Virginia Military Institute, and Kappa Alpha (southern) at Washington-Lee University, Virginia, in 1865; Kappa Sigma at the University of Virginia in 1867; Pi Kappa Alpha at the same place in 1868, and Sigma Nu at the Virginia Military Institute in 1869, all of which have sent out branches and prospered. Aside from the founding in 1884 of a third local senior society, Wolf’s Head, at Yale, the past twenty-seven years have developed few, if any, college fraternities of national repute except professional and women’s societies. The quarter of a century in this department of college life has witnessed a rapid growth on the part of some fraternities which, just after the war, were not ranked among the first half dozen, and by others, the development of abnormal conservatism, with a tendency to let well enough alone, and in some instances to live on prestige. An accompanying chart makes it plain that after Kappa Alpha, Sigma Phi, and Delta Phi at Union bad given rise to Alpha Delta Phi and to Psi Upsilon, the former to Beta Theta Pi and the latter to Delta Kappa Epsilon, that the line of propagation, as it were, was divided. One course was the outcome of the activity of Alpha Delta Phi and Beta Theta Pi, resulting in Phi Gamma Delta, Phi Delta Theta, Phi Kappa Psi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon Delta Tau Delta, Alpha Tau Omega Kappa Alpha (southern) and Sigma Nu, the other, the result of Psi Upsilon and Delta Kappa Epsilon stimulus, including Sigma Chi, Kappa Sigma, Pi Kappa Alpha, and Phi Kappa Sigma. Among remaining prominent societies Chi Psi and Theta Delta Chi had their origin at Union, and Delta Psi and Zeta Psi in New York city, where Alpha Delta Phi, Psi Upsilon and Delta Phi had each preceded them. The foregoing suggests a classification of college fraternities into general, honorary, professional, women’s and local.
The older societies in the first group may be subdivided according to seniority and place of origin as follows:
Union Triad.—Kappa Alpha, Sigma Phi, Delta Phi.
Historic Triad.—Alpha Delta Phi, Psi Upsilon, Delta Kappa Epsilon.
Pennsylvania Triad.—Phi Gamma Delta, Phi Kappa Sigma, Phi Kappa Psi.
Double Triad (East).—Mystical Seven, Chi Psi, Zeta Psi, Theta, Delta Chi, Delta Psi, Chi Phi (Princeton, 1854).
Miami Triad (West)—Beta Theta Pi, Phi Delta, Theta Sigma Chi
Triple Triad (South)—W. W. W., or The ] Rainbow (dead), Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Chi Phi (University of North Carolina), Delta Tau Delta, Alpha Tau Omega, Kappa Alpha, Kappa Sigma, Pi Kappa Alpha, Sigma Nu.
The characteristics of the three earlier fraternities at Union College are broadly marked. Twenty years ago and for a long time preceding, the membership of the few chapters of Kappa Alpha (very few had or have been established) was limited and exclusive, while the policy of the fraternity was distinctly one of non-extension. Its immediate imitator, Sigma Phi, was not long in securing a like classification. It, too, had a restricted number of chapters, and a tendency to regard the grandfather as having much to do with the man. Delta Phi was less exclusive, but did not establish many new chapters and has held to its earlier standard with less success than the other two. Baird says of the three great fraternities, Alpha Delta Phi, Psi Upsilon, and Delta Kappa Epsilon, that “they are rivals of each other more frequently than of other societies, and have the common characteristics of chapters of large size, literary work in their meetings, and wealth in their outward appointments.” He thinks the first excels in literary spirit, the second in the cultivation of the social side of life, and that the third “occupies a middle ground.” At Yale they are junior societies, and at that place, more often than otherwise, are stepping tones to the senior societies. They are found as rivals at Hamilton, Columbia, Yale, Amherst, Brown, Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Michigan Rochester, Wesleyan, Kenyon, Cornell, Trinity, and Minnesota; the first and third at Western Reserve, Williams, and College of the City of New York; the second and third at Chicago and Syracuse, and the first two at Union. Psi Upsilon also has chapters at New York University, University of Pennsylvania, and Lehigh; Alpha Delta Phi at Harvard, Johns Hopkins and Toronto; and Delta Kappa Epsilon at Colby, Lafayette, Colgate, Rutgers, Middlebury, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, De Pauw, Central, Miami, California, Vanderbilt, Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi. Alpha Delta Phi and Psi Upsilon continue to pay that attention to the social standing and literary excellence among their members which has ever characterized almost all of the chapters of each, but are more conservative as to extension than formerly. Delta Kappa Epsilon is noticeable for good fellowship and numerous chapters, some of which as noted, are at minor colleges. Beta Theta Pi, the first western fraternity, is now one of the largest and best governed. It places less weight on the propriety or desirability of what has been called conservatism with respect to increase of chapters and maintains as high literary excellence among members as older and formerly more distinguished fraternities. Chi Psi, while not so restricted as to number of chapters as Sigma Phi or Kappa Alpha, continues one of the smaller societies; its reputation is as much for good fellowship as for social or literary excellence. Zeta Psi was formerly one of the smaller fraternities, but adopted a policy of extension and has grown rapidly. It is very secret, was founded by Freemasons, and in recent years has made a remarkable advance in standing and membership. The socially exclusive members of Delta Psi, like those of Sigma Phi and Kappa Alpha, do not add to their few chapters. There is considerable wealth centred in this organization. Among western societies which have shown enterprise and have become prominent of late years are Phi Kappa Psi, Phi Delta Theta, and Phi Gamma Delta. Some of the relatively smaller or younger societies, such as Theta Delta Chi, the (amalgamated) Chi Phi, Sigma Chi, and Delta Tau Delta, are particularly strong at a number of colleges. The fraternities in the Pennsylvania and Miami groups, as a whole, have paid more attention to extension than to the exclusiveness which has marked societies forming the Union, Historic, and Double Triads. Most of the Chapters of the Southern group are confined to colleges in the South. Since 1880, Beta Theta Pi, Phi Delta Theta, Delta Tau Delta, Phi Kappa Psi, Sigma Chi, and Phi Gamma Delta, which, prior thereto, were found almost exclusively in western and southern colleges, began to invade colleges and universities of the North and East, where to-day, in some instances, they dispute supremacy with older fraternities.
Phi Beta Kappa; Chi Delta Theta, local Yale, and Sigma Xi, local, Cornell, 1886.
Theta Xi, English and scientific, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1864: four chapters in 1890; membership estimated. 450.
Phi Delta Phi, law, University of Michigan 1869; sixteen chapters in 1890; membership in 1897 estimated,. 2,000.
Q. T. V., (not Greek-letter), agricultural and scientific , Massachusetts Agricultural College, 1809; four chapters, in 1890; membership estimated, 650.
Phi Sigma Kappa, scientific and medical, Massachusetts Agricultural College’ 1873; three chapters in 1890; membership estimated, 210.
Nu Sigma Nu, medical, University of Michigan, 1882; three chapters in 1890; membership in 1897 estimated, 200.
Alpha Chi Omega, music (women students), De Pauw University, 1885; two chapters in 1890; membership estimated, 200.
Phi Alpha Sigma, medical, Bellevue Hospital, 1887; two chapters and an estimated membership of 150.
Pi Beta Phi, founded at Monmouth College, Illinois, by eleven young women; originally called the I. C. Sorosis, now known by the Greek letters which, placed on the feather of a golden arrow constitute the society’s badge; colors are wine red and pale blue and its flower is the carnation; there were nineteen chapters reported in 1890 in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, Colorado, District of Columbia, Ohio, and Minnesota. Total membership is probably not over 1,600.
Kappa Kappa Gamma, organized at Monmouth, Ill., 1870 by four young women, in preference to accepting membership in a proposed sisterhood. It spread to colleges through the central western and northwestern States, and by 1890 had twenty-two active chapters, with a form of government similar to that of many Greek-letter fraternities. It’s colors are dark and light blue and the badge is a jewelled key with the letters Kappa Kappa Gamma and Alpha Omega Omicron enamelled in black thereon. Present membership: about 2,200
Kappa Alpha Theta, organized at De Pauw University, Indiana, in 1870, by a daughter of a member of Beta Theta Pi and three other women students, assisted by the father of the founder. Its government was vested in the parent chapter until 1883, when it was placed in the hands of a Grand Chapter composed of one member from each chapter. Its flower is the pansy, its colors are black and gold and its badge is a kite shaped shield with a black- field and white chevron bearing the Greek letters forming its name. Its twenty active chapters in 1890 were scattered through the central western and northwestern States, with a few in California, Pennsylvania, New York, and Vermont. Present membership is approximately 1,900.
Delta Gamma, founded at the University of Mississippi, in 1872, by three women, the outgrowth of a social organization at a neighboring educational institution. The twelve active chapters in 1890 were distributed through southern, central, northwestern, a few far western, and in eastern States. March 15 is observed as a day of reunion, when the alumni, so far as possible, visit active chapters or communicate with them by mail. A Grand (governing) and a Deputy Grand Chapter is chosen every four years. There are alumni chapters at Cleveland, Milwaukee, Chicago, and other cities. Its colors are pink, blue, and bronze, and the pearl rose is the society flower. The badge is a gold anchor, with a shield above the flukes bearing the letters forming the name of the organization.
Alpha Phi, founded at Syracuse University in 1872, by ten women students. Nine years later it established the second or Beta, Chapter, that at Northwestern University, but has continued a conservative policy in this respect, having formed only five chapters by 1890, the others being at Boston University, De Pauw, and Cornell. There are several alumni chapters. The first society chapter house among Greek-letter sisterhoods was erected by the Alpha (Syracuse) Chapter of Alpha Phi. Lilies of the valley and forget-me-nots are the flowers of the sisterhood. Its colors are silver gray and red, and its badge is a monogram formed of the letters composing its name. Frances Willard, late President of the W. C. T. U., was one of its alumni.
Gamma Phi Beta, founded at Syracuse University, 1874, by four women students, aided by Bishop E. 0. Haven, then Chancelor [sic] of the University. Its four other chapters in 1890 were located at Ann Arbor, University of Wisconsin Boston University, and Northwestern University. The society flower is the carnation. Its colors are fawn and seal brown, and the badge is a monogram of the three Greek letters within a crescent.
Sigma Kappa was organized at Colby University, Waterville, Me., 1874. Estimated membership 130.
Alpha Beta Tau was founded in 1881, at Oxford Female Institute, Oxford, Miss., with a branch at the University of Mississippi. Its total membership is about 290.
P. E. 0. (Not Greek-letter,) Little is known of this society, which exists West and South, both at and without college cities and towns. There appears to be an especial element of secrecy attached to it. Its membership, has been estimated at about 2,000.
Delta Delta Delta was organized in 1888 at Boston University by four young women. In 1890 it had five chapters. It is governed by convention, and during recess by the officers and parent chapter. It displays the pansy, gold, silver, and blue colors, and a badge consisting of a crescent with three deltas upon it and three stars between the horns. Its membership is about 300.
Beta Sigma Omicron was founded at the University of Missouri in 1889.
1. K. A. (not Greek), Trinity, 1829. Founded by six students of the classes of ‘29, ‘30, and ‘32. Its color is royal purple. The badge is a St. Andrew’s cross, bearing the initials of its title on three of the arms, and 1776 on the fourth. Rev. Thomas Gallaudet, St. Ann’s, New York, and Rev. George Mallory, editor of the “Churchman “New York, are among its best known alumni.
Skull and Bones was founded at Yale College, as a senior society, by fifteen members of the class of 1832. A writer in the New York “Tribune,” in 1896, states that:
The father of “Bones,” first of the senior societies, is believed to have been General William H. Russell, ‘37, who died a few years ago, after having been for many years at the head of a famous military academy in the city of New Haven. It is a part of college tradition that “Bones” is a branch of a university corps in Germany, in which country General Russell spent some time before his graduation. One of the classmates who joined with him in establishing the society at Yale was the late Alphonso Taft of Cincinnati, President Hayes’s Attorney-General. The society flourished from the start. For a long time it held its meetings in hired rooms; but in 1856 the windowless, vine-covered brown stone hall in High Street, near Chapel Street, opposite the campus, was erected. A few years ago the society found more space necessary and built a large wing to the hall. The building is about 30 feet high, 33 feet wide, and 44 feet deep. The property is held by the Russell Trust Association, a name assumed in honor of General Russell. On the last Thursday in May the entire college assembles before Durfee Hall, among whom the juniors are conspicuous, for they all know that lightning is to strike forty-five of them. Soon a “Bones” man appears who, however good natured, wears a solemn look as he passes in and out among the crowd. Suddenly he taps or slaps a junior on the shoulder,* and says sternly, “Go to your room.” Amid wild cheering the lucky man obeys mutely followed by the one who tapped him, who says, “Will you accept an election to the society known as ‘Skull and Bones?’” and goes away in silence, while the junior returns to receive the congratulations of friends. About the same time a Keys man, and a “Wolf’s Head” man in his wake, go through the same evolutions. Between “tapping time” and initiation a week elapses. During this time the slapper and the slapped preserve a sacred mutual silence, except when the new man is notified of the time and place of the awful ordeal, to be consummated in the recesses of the society house.
This peculiar ceremony of nominating or choosing new members of the Yale senior societies, original there with Skull and Bones and imitated by “Keys” and by Wolf’s Head, is, doubtless, derived from the accolade, or conferring of knighthood, in ancient times an embrace; but more recently a blow on the shoulder with the flat of a sword. But still more singular is the custom of the Yale juniors in assembling on the campus between four and six o’clock, on the particular Thursday in May, accompanied by half the college, and hundreds of other spectators, entirely without announcement from or arrangement by any one. The writer first referred to points out, in addition to the fact that Yale’s senior societies meet Thursday nights in closely guarded society houses, that a “Bones” man, while in college, is never without his badge, a skull and bones, with the figures “322” in place of the lower jaw; that if in swimming without bathing costume, he carries it in his mouth; that one of the newly chosen “Bones” men wears two (overlapped) badges for six months, and that the “sanctum sanctorum” in the “Bones” house is referred to by the figures “322.” There is a tradition, however, that the “322,” the sum of which is the perfect number and suggests a “mystical seven,” means “founded in ‘32, 2nd chapter (the first being “the German corps”); also, that the members trace their society “to a Greek patriot organization, dating back to Demosthenes, 322 B.C. The ‘Bones’ records of 1881, it, is alleged, are headed ‘Anno-Demotheni 2203.’ “ An election to “Bones” is generally the secret ambition of almost all Yale men, even over the bones of the Greek-letter societies, although Scroll and Key, and Wolf’s Head, of late, have made such strides as to frequently dispute the first place which the older senior society has had in the minds of available material. “Bones” generally elects honor men and athletic stars. Scroll and Key takes men of the same rank, but more frequently from among the social element, while Wolf’s Head has taken men which might have been welcome additions to either Bones” or “Keys.” The following are the names of some of the better known Yale graduates who are “Bones” men: President Dwight, Ellis H. Roberts, William W. Crapo, Daniel C. Gilman, Andrew D. White, Chauncey M. Depew, Moses Coit Tyler, Eugene Schuyler, William Walter Phelps, Anthony Higgins, Daniel H. Chamberlain, Franklin McVeagh, William Collins Whitney, William Graham Sumner, George Peabody Wetmore, Wilson Shannon Bissell, John C. Eno, Theodore S. Woolsey, Walker Blaine, Arthur T. Hadley, Robert J. Cook, Judge William II. Taft, Walter Camp, Sheffield Phelps, and Alonzo A. Stagg. The three historic junior societies at Yale are Alpha Delta Phi, Psi Upsilon, and Delta Kappa Epsilon, although Zeta Psi has figured there of late years as a sophomore and junior society. Skull and Bones, Scroll and Key, and Wolf’s Head, as a matter of practice, each elect fifteen members annually, generally from among members of the first three societies named, seldom from members of that last named, and still less frequently elect a junior who is not a member of any, of the Greek-letter fraternities.
Lambda Iota was founded at the University of Vermont by thirteen students, where it has since maintained a prosperous existence. Its badge consists of an owl on the top of a column or pillar between the letters forming the society’s name. It numbers three governors of Vermont among its alumni. Its membership is more than 400.
Scroll and Key was founded at Yale in 1841, by members of the class of ‘42, as a rival senior society to Skull and Bones, most of the peculiarities of which it copied. (See Skull and Bones.) It celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with a three days’ jubilee in May, 1892, in its society house at New Haven, one of the handsomest structures of the kind in the country. It is incorporated as the Kingsley Trust Association. It is related that on the nights when the society meets all the active “Keys” men in New Haven are required to be in the society house from half-past six until half-past twelve, and that none of them is allowed to leave the building during that period, “unless accompanied by another man.” In preserving a deep mystery about its affairs, in not mentioning the society in the presence of an outsider, and in retaining constant possession of badges by undergraduate members, “Keys” parallels its prototype. While members of the latter wear their badges on their vests, “Keys” men frequently wear theirs on their necktie. The “Keys” badge consists of a gold key across a scroll, with the letters “C. S. P.” above, and “C. C. I.” below. It selects annually fifteen members of the junior class by the same process described as originating with Skull and Bones. Its membership, on the whole, is characterized as conspicuous for social standing and wealth rather than for college or athletic honors, though many Yale athletes and honor men have joined it. Among its prominent graduates are Theodore Runyon, John Addison Porter, George Shiras, General Wager Swayne, the Rev. Joseph IT. Twitchell, Dr. James W. McLane, George A. Adee, Edward S. Dana, Isaac Bromley, Bartlett Arkell, and James R. Sheffield.
Wolf’s Head was founded at Yale by a number of members of the class of ‘84, as a rival senior society to Skull and Bones and to Scroll and Key. (See those societies.) It copies most, if not all, of the peculiarities of the two older senior societies. For a few years it was not rated as highly as either “Bones” or “Keys,” and was able to take only the so-called better men in the Junior Class overlooked by “Bones” and “Keys;” but with the increase in the size of classes, and the fact that each of the senior societies takes only fifteen men each year, with increased age and its handsome ivy-clad society house. Wolf’s Head continues to gain upon its older rivals. It is incorporated as the Phelps Trust Association. Its badge consists of a wolf’s head transfixed on an inverted Egyptian tau, the symbolism suggested by which is significant, yet probably different from that taught within the pale of the society.
Phi Nu Theta was organized at Wesleyan University, 1837, shortly after the appearance there of the Mystical Seven which is now dead, and in some respects one of the most remarkable college societies in the country. Phi Nu Theta sought to bring together a few members of each class for mutual helpfulness and within the past sixty years has initiated about 460 members. It has a handsome house, and ranks well among Middletown college fraternities. Its badge is a scroll watch-key with the letters forming its name engraved thereon. Among its alumni are Rev. Dr. Winchell, formerly of Syracuse University, the late Bishop Haven and Professor W. O. Atwater.
Kappa Kappa Kappa. Founded at Dartmouth, Hanover, N. H., in 1842, by six students, assisted by Professor C. B. Haddock, the year following the appearance of Scroll and Key at Yale. It numbers about 850 members. The badge is a Corinthian column and capital of gold with the letters K. K. K. at the base. It has generally ranked with other fraternities at Dartmouth.
Delta Psi. Organized at the University of Vermont in 1850. For a few years it was an anti-secret society. It has no connection with the fraternity by the same name which was founded at Columbia in 1847. It numbers about 350 members.
Alpha Sigma Pi. Organized at Norwich University, Vermont, in 1857, by seven students. The military character of the society was the natural outcome of the college where it appeared. Its colors are blue and white, and the badge is a gold shield displaying a flag and musket crossed over a drum and the Greek letters forming the name of the organization. Present membership, about 290. General Granville M. Dodge is, perhaps, its most widely known alumnus.
Phi Zeta Mu was organized in the scientific school, Dartmouth, in 1857, by five students, members of ‘58 and ‘59. It has a monogram badge, a fine society building, and about 400 members.
Alpha Sigma Phi was founded at Yale in 1846 as a sophomore society. It established chapters at Harvard in 1850, Amherst in 1857, Marietta College, Ohio, in 1860, and at Ohio Wesleyan University in 1865. The parent chapter died from internal disagreements, the first two branches were suppressed by college faculties, and the fourth was withdrawn by the society itself, which flourishes, therefore, solely at Marietta College. It has about 300 names in its catalogue, and there are several organizations of its alumni. The society has a fine house. Its badge consists of a shield bearing an open book on which are hieroglyphics, across it a quill and letters forming the name of the society.
Berzelius was established at Sheffield, Yale College, in 1863. Its membership is about 370. The badge “is a combination of potash bulbs in gold,” over which is the letter “B.” It ranks high among Yale scientific students.
Sigma Delta Chi was founded at Sheffield Scientific School, Yale, in 1867. It is sometimes referred to as Book and Snake, because its badge consists of an open book displaying the letters Sigma Delta Chi, surrounded by a serpent. It is prosperous and has about 300 members.
The foregoing makes it plain that the secret society system at Yale is something radically different from that at other colleges. The difference may be made clear by stating that at almost all colleges the freshman who receives a bid from and joins a Greek-letter fraternity unites with an interstate or national society which represents the social, literary, and human side of college life and binds him closely to itself not only while an undergraduate, but for life.
At Yale when there used to be freshmen as well as sophomore,’ junior, and senior societies, the same general cliques or group of “fellows” were taken into the same freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior societies in a mass, a sort of four degrees system, each society representing a different “degree.” The freshmen societies were merely Yale affairs, with no ligaments reaching to other colleges, and the like is true to-day of Yale’s sophomore societies. Its three junior fraternities are, indeed, parts of as many national college societies, with a prestige not second even to Yale’s senior societies, but one must leave the shadows of Yale to appreciate the fact. The Yale senior societies, owing to this exceptional and unfortunate system so far as the Yale sophomore and junior societies are concerned, are goals, and the sophomore and junior societies are merely stepping-stones. Twenty-five years ago the rival freshmen societies were “D. K.” (Delta Kappa) and “Sigma Epps” (Kappa Sigma Epsilon). The sophomore members endeavored to select freshmen most likely to make a mark while in college, and great efforts were made by the rival societies to outwit each other and get “the best men.” When the initiation ceremonies were held, a month later, the sophomores felt that they were rewarded for their trouble. A correspondent of the New York “Sun” has described substantially what took place at the initiation of freshmen during the palmy days of “D. K.” and “Sigma Epps,” as follows:
The candidate received a black-bordered notification of his election, with instructions to repair the following evening to some remote street corner. There he was met by two sophomore members who straightway blindfolded him and grasped him firmly on either side. Then ensued a Walhalla dance through bypath and wood and dell. Now the candidate was run at full speed against a tree, now he trembled astride a picket fence, now the bandage was slipped so as to give one glance of an open grave or the dizzy verge of East Rock. Then, after many miles and countless turns he was hurried, all panting, struggling, and stumbling, through a busy street, made evident by jostlings and derisive calls. He was forced step by step to mount backward a seemingly interminable flight of stairs, and to wait in a close and heated room until there was a sudden upward jerk, the bandage was removed, and be found himself on the roof of a high building with others of his classmates, equally confused and exhausted. When at length the candidate’s name was called in sombre tones he advanced all uncertain to the scuttle. There he was bound and blindfolded. Strong arms grasped him from above and from below. He descended rapidly with many a bump. He was dragged into the main hall, flung into a great canvas blanket with rope handles, and then, with all the force of a score of excited young devotees, tossed and slapped again and again against the lofty ceiling. He was rolled in a cask and nailed in a coffin, and stretched on a guillotine with one blade—all to an accompaniment of sulphurous smoke and lurid flashes and piercing yells of “’My poor fresh.’’
But these ceremonies were not always without unfortunate results, and at times were marked, by a degree of hilariousness not explained entirely on the ground of good nature and a desire to look on the humorous side of life. The displeasure of the faculty was an outcome, and in 1880 the societies were abolished. The only remaining Yale freshman fraternity, Gamma Nu, founded in 1859 as a non-secret, literary society, died from internal weakness in 1889, since which time Yale Greek-letter or other secret freshmen societies have been extinct. Twenty-five years ago Yale’s sophomore fraternities were Phi Theta Psi and Delta Beta Xi, founded on the ruins, as it were, of Kappa Sigma Phi and Alpha Sigma Theta. The first, called “Theta Psi,” was practically a stepping-stone to Psi Upsilon, and Delta Beta” was all ante-room leading to the sanctum sanctorum of Delta Kappa Epsilon. They took about thirty men each and held weekly meetings, features of which were mild-mannered literary exercises and sometimes punch that was anything but mild. So serious were the results of one occasion of that kind, in 1878, that the faculty unceremoniously “twisted the neck” of the “phoenix of Theta Psi” and closed “the book of Delta Beta forever.” The two existing sophomore societies are Hé Boulé and Eta Phi, the first formed in 1875 and the latter in 1879, among the most powerful organizations at Yale, it being seldom that a member of each fails of an election to the junior societies. They are almost if not quite as secret in their workings as the senior societies, and constitute a formidable factor in college politics. The names of the seventeen members of each, together with their places of meeting, are confidently believed by members to be unknown to the outside world; and while, as a matter of fact, such is seldom or never the case, the fiction is encouraged. The owl and initials of He Boule and the mask of Eta Phi are worn near the left armholes of the waistcoat. Alpha Delta Phi, Psi Upsilon, and Delta Kappa Epsilon of national fame, with chapters at many other colleges, each takes thirty-five sophomores at the end of the year. Zeta Psi, a two-year society at Yale, also takes its quota. As explained in the sketch of Skull and Bones, these elections have an important bearing on the chances of those selected for securing membership in one of the three senior societies. About twenty-five years ago Alpha Delta Phi refused to continue to be made a means to an end, merely a way to a senior society, and withdrew its Yale Chapter. For nearly a score of years thereafter Psi Upsilon and Delta Kappa Epsilon monopolized desirable junior recruits on their way to ”Bones” and “Keys,” and after 1881 to Wolf’s Head. Six or seven years ago Alpha Delta Phi revived its Yale Chapter, the oldest secret society at Yale except Skull and Bones, as a four-year fraternity, and tried to make it a Yale organization on a par with even the senior year fraternities. It met with only moderate success, owing to the overpowering, weight of Yale sentiment in favor of class societies, and within a few years accepted the situation, became a junior society again, so far as that chapter is concerned, built one of the handsomest and most expensive fraternity houses at New Haven, and revived its ancient standing as a worthy rival of the Yale variety of Psi Upsilon and Delta Kappa Epsilon.
This junior society rivalry, however, is more on the surface than otherwise, the three fraternities being practically private social clubs which meet separately, of course, to cooperate in the production of plays and burlesques and in even more distinctively social entertainments. The “Alpha Delt,” “Psi U,” and “Deke” halls, or houses, at New Haven are among the most elaborate and costly structures of the kind in the country. In the week prior to the “tapping” ceremonial of the senior societies, in May (see Skull and Bones), the junior societies appear on the campus attired in gowns and hoods, singing each its own peculiar songs, after which they retire to their several buildings and proceed to initiate the thirty-five newly pledged members who are to act as heirs and assigns of these fraternities for the ensuing college year.
The inspiration, development, rituals, and function of the general college fraternities, those which do not live in vain, which hold the remembrance and affection of members well on into their declining years, which often divide the regard felt for alma mater, call for an analysis which the mere chronicler may well be excused for not attempting. A recent writer stated that many men who have belonged to a Greek Letter society during their undergraduate days lose interest in the matter before they are five years away from their alma mater. This is almost inevitable because of new interests and because a large number of graduates are not associated in their homes with men who belong to their fraternity. “One can hardly refrain from believing the author of the sentiment is a Yale man. The “Bones” or “Keys” graduate of Yale might naturally find the height of his ambition in an election to a senior society. Neither his sophomore nor junior year fraternities cuts much of a figure beyond the fact that he used them in an effort to get to “Bones,” “Keys,” or Wolf’s Head. But the alumnus of Cornell, Columbia, Amherst, the University of Michigan, and many other colleges, who is an Alpha Delt,” a “Psi U, “ a “Deke,” a Beta,” a “Zete,” a “Kap,” a “Sig,” or a member of any of a score of others with a national reputation, remains more often than otherwise a faithful son of such society so long as he lives, and treasures its records, its traditions and its influences to’ the latest days of his life. The Greek-letter fraternities antedate all other existing secret societies in America, except the fraternity of Freemasons. They vary more than might be supposed, for members are always convinced of the superiority of their own fraternities over all rivals and confident of the greater loyalty of their own alumni. Some have elaborate rituals and others ceremonials which would be regarded by good judges as commonplace. The world at large, unfortunately, has had abundant evidence during the past twenty-five years of the sensational if not solemn character of the initiation ceremonies of some, as the results were such as to endanger the lives of initiates.
Heckethorn [Secret Societies of All Ages.] and some others attribute the founding, in 1776, of Phi Beta Kappa, the mother of American college Greek-letter fraternities, to the Illuminati, of Weishaupt, in Bavaria, but this is undoubtedly mere conjecture. The Illuminati itself was founded in 1776, and it is hardly likely that a few boys at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, in those days of extremely infrequent letter-writing and trans-Atlantic voyages, were inspired in their formation of a Greek-letter secret society by the illustrious foreigner whose name is linked to an order which for a short time was grafted upon Freemasonry and then disappeared forever. There is no reason for believing that American college Greek Letter societies had any inspiration beyond what appeared on the surface, until after 1828, the year following the disappearance of Morgan, who was accused of being about to betray Masonic secrets. In that and several succeeding years politicians made use of this “good enough Morgan until after election,” and so fanned the anti-Masonic flame that thousands of well-meaning people discovered prejudices against the fraternity which they never till then suspected themselves of possessing. Reference has been made to the effect on John Quincy Adams, Edward Everett, and others, and the history of that time will reveal some, notably Thurlow Weed, who were less sincere in their antagonism to Freemasonry, even though no less bitter. This presented an opportunity to cranks and charlatans which was not to be despised, and the country was speedily flooded with supposititious Masonic ceremonies and alleged accounts of revelations of Masonic secrets. The public mind was directed to that subject as it never had been before, and probably never will be again. Secret societies of the middle ages, the mysteries of Isis and Osiris and of Eleusis, and the revolutionary secret societies of this and of other countries, all came in for a critical examination and premeditated condemnation and got both. The only importance attaching to this reference is to recall what seems not to have been pointed out before, that it was during the period from 1828 to 1845, covering the anti-Masonic agitation, that the older among the best known national Greek-letter college fraternities were born. At that time the English Order of Foresters was just being introduced here; the English Order of Odd Fellows had not been domesticated more than a decade and had only a few members; the English Order of Druids was a newcomer; the American Improved Order of Red Men as at present organized, was only then taking shape, and the Ancient Order of Hibernians had just arrived at New York City from Ireland. Curiosity and prejudice had been mingled in an effort to find out something with which to condemn the type of the secret society, Freemasonry, and the effort resulted, among other things, in a study of secret societies in general. If one can read of groups of college students at New York and New England centres of intelligence organizing Greek Letter secret societies on the outward lines established by Phi Beta Kappa, Kappa Alpha, Sigma Phi, and Delta Phi without appreciating that they must have utilized some of the raw material which was floating in the air, he must be deficient in imagination. The societies which saw the light in 1825 and 1827, Kappa Alpha, Sigma Phi, and Delta Phi, probably did not have elaborate rituals at that time. There are those who know they had them later. Then came Alpha Delta Phi and Skull and Bones in 1832, Psi Upsilon, in 1833, ‘Mystical Seven in 1837, Beta Theta Pi in 1839, Chi Psi and Scroll and Key in 1841, and Delta Kappa Epsilon in 1844. In these one finds the practical inspiration for all that came after in the family of Greek-letter societies. That college fraternities multiplied fast and grew rapidly during this period is more than significant. As a matter of fact, some of the better known college fraternities give unmistakable evidence, to those of their members in a position to judge, of having rummaged in the bureau drawers of Freemasonry, Odd Fellowship, Forestry, the Templars, Knights of Malta, and other “orders” for ritualistic finery. Zeta Psi was founded by Freemasons. Delta Psi, Columbia, 1847, was dressed up by some one who had access to rituals of the bastard Masonic rites of Misraim and Memphis. Psi Upsilon hung its harp low on the tree of symbolic Masonry while its offspring, Delta Kappa Epsilon, read up on the Vehmgerichte and ancient Grecian mysteries before selecting a few ceremonials which would better fit nineteenth-century college life. Theta Delta Chi went far afield and returned with the Forestic legend, while the earlier “Alpha Delts” were evidently inspired by what they knew of Royal Arch Masonry and the Red Cross degree as conferred in commanderies of Masonic Knights Templars. There would appear to be little room to-day for additions to the Greek-letter world. There are too many of these fraternities already, and while there is no tendency on the part of stronger societies to unite, weaker ones occasionally find their way into older or stronger fraternities. The latter, having the prestige of age and a distinguished alumni, are naturally well-nigh invincible.
The general fraternities publish catalogues containing, as estimated, about 111,000 names, honorary about 6,500, professional 4,400, and the ladies, perhaps, 9,000; in all about 131,000, a large proportion of which are of deceased members.
Delta Kappa Epsilon. — Organized on June 22, 1844, at Yale College, by William W. Atwater, Edward G. Bartlett, Frederick P. Bellinger, Jr., Henry Case, George F. Chester, John B. Conyngham, Thomas L. Franklin, W. Walter Horton, William Boyd Jacobs, Edward V. Kinsley, Chester N. Righter, Elisha Bacon Shapleigh, Thomas D. Sherwood, Alfred Everett Stetson and Orson W. Stow, who had just completed their sophomore year. They had contemplated being elected members of Psi UpsiIon in a body, but some of them failing to secure an election to that junior society, the fifteen stood together and formed a new junior society with the foregoing title, to compete with Alpha Delta Phi and Psi Upsilon, which, until then, had monopolized junior year Greek-letter society interests at Yale. Delta Kappa Epsilon, or “D. K. E.” as it is usually called, beat all records at extension, by placing chapters at thirty-two colleges and universities between the year it was founded and the outbreak of the war in 1861, going as far as Miami and the University of Michigan in the West and to colleges in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana at the South. The southern chapters were rendered dormant by the war, and since 1866 the fraternity has been much more particular in creating branches, has made more of an effort to revive inactive chapters than to place new ones. Its original plan did not contemplate a general fraternity, but early opportunities for new chapters presenting themselves, a plan for the propagation of “D. K. E.” was organized and was carried out with a thoroughness which, owing in part to the war, reacted upon the general standing of the society. From 1870 to date the society has built upon far better foundation and with more care and skill, and ranks as the largest general college fraternity, with more than 12,000 members, nearly 10 per cent of the total membership of the world of Greek-letter societies. The impression has always prevailed that the parent chapter of “D. K. E.” exercises a dominant influence over the entire organization, but this has been denied. Certain it is that, at times, the tie between the Yale “Deke” and his fraters from other colleges is not as strong as that between members of different chapters of almost any other college fraternity. But this may be due to the peculiar society system at Yale rather than to a peculiarity in the government or personnel of Delta Kappa Epsilon. Its Harvard chapter ran against the anti-fraternity laws there in 1858 and practically ceased to exist as a chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon until 1863. It had not initiated members, for several years, but held meetings in Boston, where it became known as the “Dicky Club.” The chapter was revived as a sophomore society in 1863, and exists to-day, occasionally challenging attention when some accident reveals to the public its ridiculous and at times reprehensible method of initiating candidates. Dicky Club is no longer “D. K. E.” Quite a number of chapters of “D. K. E.” have houses of their own; the “D. K. E.” club in New York stands as high as similar institutions there, and there are associations of “D. K. E.” alumni at a score of cities which hold annual reunions and cultivate the fraternal relations begun during college life. The fraternity is governed by an advisory council which is incorporated. The badge resembles that of Psi Upsilon, except that in the centre of the black field the golden letters Delta Kappa Epsilon appear upon a white scroll. Much is made of armorial bearings, each chapter having a distinct blazon. The fraternity emblem is a lion rampant, in black, on a gold background. On its list of names of distinguished members are those of United States Senators M. C. Butler and Calvin S. Brice ; Perry Belmont, W. A Washburn, John D. Long, A. Miner Griswold, A. P. Burbank, Theodore Roosevelt, John Bach McMaster, George Ticknor Curtis, Julian Hawthorne, Robert Grant, Theodore Winthrop, William L. Alden, ex-Governor McCreary of Kentucky; Wayne McVeagh, Charles S. Fairchild, General Francis A. Walker, Whitelaw Reid, Robert T. Lincoln, Stewart L. Woodford, Marl, H. Dunnell, and Henry Cabot Lodge.
**
*Secret Societies at Yale. Rupert Hughes, McClure’s Magazine, June, 1894.
[Editor’s Note: The article was actually in Munsey’s Magazine, not McClures Magazine as stated in the original starred note and is reprinted in this book.]
