YALE ALUMNI
WEEKLY
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YALE ALUMNI WEEKLY
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Yale Alumni Weekly, New Haven, Conn.
The office is at Room 6, White Hall,
ADVISORY BOARD.
H, C, Rosrnson, °538. J. R. SHEFFIELD, ’87.
W. W. Sxrppy, 65S. J, A. HARTWELL, ’89 58.
C. P. LInDsLEY, 75S. L.S. WELcH, ’89.
W. Camp, ’80. E. VAN INGEN, ’91 S.
W. G. Daaeztt, ’80. P. Jay, 92.
EDITOR,
Lrwis 8. WELOH, ’89.
ASSOCIATE EDITOR.
WALTER Camp, ’80,
ASSISTANT EDITOR.
E. J. THompson, Sp. .:
NEWS EDITOR.
FRED. M. Davrzs, ’99.
PRESTON KuMLER, 1900, Athletic Department.
Davip D. Tenney, 1900, Special.
Entered as second class matter at New Haven P. 0.
NEW HAVEN, CONN., FEB. 8, 1898.
Please sign with your full name all
your communications. THE WEEKLY can
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THE WIGWAM,.
In forming the Wigwam, members of
Nineteen hundred have taken a step
which, in our opinion, promises more
for the social life of Yale than any-
thing done in that line for a long
period. Time and experience will be
necessary to tell just how correct their
diagnosis of the situation is, and just
how well adapted is their organization
to the needs of the time. They are
dead in earnest, and the organization
begins certainly under most favorable
auspices. The opening meeting was a
success in every particular, and the
popularity of the Wigwam is already
so great that twice as many men wish
to join it as its membership limit will
allow.
But more of the practical side of it,
after it has had a fair test. In the
meanwhile, we can most enthusiasti-
cally endorse the spirit which prompt-
ed its formation and the good sense
which has characterized its methods.
Nearly every man who has wished to
reform the social conditions of Yale
life in the under classes has begun by
thundering against Sophomore socie-
ties. If these reformers had their way,
they would sweep these organizations
out of existence. They generally fail
to say what they would put in their
place. Perhaps they don’t realize that
something must be in their place; but
those who follow College life closely
know that the mere casting out of this
“devil,” if you would please to call it
so, might mean the forgathering of
several other devils of much less attrac-
tive personalities.
The founders of the Wigwam have
attempted to create, not to destroy.
They seem to say that the trouble is
not that some men get together and
know each other well, but that a good
many men who ought to get together
and know each other well do not have
the opportunity. They do not declare
that organization and association of
men of common interest is a bad thing.
On the contrary, they know that the
history of the Sophomore societies
themselves proves that it is an excel-
lent thing for these men to come
together in this way. _As has been
said, they want to secure for them-
selves and for their classmates more of
just these advantages.
No one of the present Sophomore
societies seems organized on such a
basis as to allow its expansion to any
considerable extent. The multiplica-
tion of societies of the same kind has
some advantages, but other drawbacks.
Besides, not only should those who
don’t ordinarily go into Sophomore
societies now have the benefit of asso-
ciation with the best men of their class,
but those who are in the different
societies need to know each other
better. And as for the Union, not all
the best men can get together in the
Union, any more than in the rowing
tank or the football squad.
And so a new basis of organization
is chosen. - On this basis it is felt that
all those who represent in one or more
directions the best qualities of Yale
student life, should be able to meet and
know each other and give to each other
what there is in each, and work to-
gether for the common interests of
Yale students—for their class and for
their College.
The basis chosen, that of a discussion
of some topic of live and immediate
interest to all, and the whipping it out
in a good, lively debate, seems a good
one. Men like debating, or else they
are very directly interested in questions
of College policy. In either case they
can contribute to the evening. Our
hope is that this side of the Wigwam
will be kept up to the highest standard.
We hope for the most severe discipli-
nary measures against those who fail
to take their part well in the discussion.
Suspension or prompt expulsion will,
we trust, not be considered too serious
measures in this line. No society
which is much worth preserving lives
on other than some such substantial
basis. |
The restriction of the number to
forty is good. We do not see how the
Wigwam could be wieldy, or could
cultivate a proper esprit de corps, in
very much larger numbers.
Wigwam is a great sticcess, there will
probably be a call for a similar rival
organization. So much the better.
The more of such means there are of
bringing together the true men of Yale,
and bringing each to the fullest enjoy-
ment of all the opportunities which
Yale has for him, the better for Yale.
We have before suggested the
formation of some organization in the
lower classes which should bring all
the most earnest and _ representative
men of Yale together. It may yet be
found possible to have some common
meeting ground for all, and so keep
the student body cohesive by mutual
association. But no one is so foolish
as to insist on any special way in which -
Yale shall work out her social salvation,
and this Wigwam has so many good
things about it, and is so plainly in the
right direction, that we endorse it most
heartily and bid it Godspeed.
he, din
Sew ee oe
ANOTHER CRUEL BLOW.
The Chicago Record, and we presume
several Western papers, printed a dis-.
patch from Berkeley, Cal., in which
one Everett J. Brown, named as Track
Captain of the University of California,
in a few brief sentences disposes of all
the professions of amateurism of East-
ern colleges. Harvard alone is ex-
cepted, and of her it is said that that
is the reason why she is so _ often
defeated. Yale, of course, is picked
out as the worst offender, and this ath-
letic leader of California claims to have
met football players from New Haven
who boasted that they had not seen the
College Campus during the football
season. Of course, Princeton is picked
out as the next worst offender. That is
* During
If the |
in the natural order of the penalty of
success.
It is just as well to reprint some of
the more humorous. of the sweet things
that are constantly in circulation in
regard to Yale. Lots of Yale men
keep scrap books, and not the least
interesting of their contents are the
different forms and styles of maledic-
tion to which their University is
treated year in and year out. This par-
ticular kind of slander has an infinite
variety, and very frequently reaches
that humor which is always associated
with the extremes of the ridiculous.
About this little incident, of course
it is much the most charitable thing to
believe that Mr. Brown has never been
East at all and that he has never talked
with a reporter. We don’t know any-
thing about Mr. Brown, and so we are
reluctant to believe fool things about
him. We know a good deal about
some newspapers and we are obliged
to admit that we are not surprised to
believe anything about them.
————+0o—___
DEBATING AT HARVARD.
Proposition to Unite the Forum and
Union for More Strength.
[Correspondence of YALE ALUMNI WEEKLY.|]
Cambridge, Mass., Feb. 1st, 1898.—
the interval between the
intercollegiate debates with Yale and
Princeton, there is seldom important
news to chronicle in regard to the
debating societies. But this year it is
proposed to consolidate the two rival
clubs, the Forum and the Union. This
would mean a radical change in the
methods which have hitherto been em-
ployed to develop debating talent in
the University. For a few seasons
after the Forum was organized—by
some discontented members of the
Union—the rivalry of the two organi-
zations proved a stimulus to debating
activity. The very fact that a rival
organization could be — successfully
launched was evidence of the healthy
vigor of the debating life in the Col-
lege. With each season, the Forum
has gained strength until it has, of late
years, had among its members more
than its share of representatives’ in
intercollegiate contests. But the suc-
cessive defeats of the Harvard debating >
teams at Yale’s hands seems to have
demoralized the debating forces, and
the weekly meetings of both clubs have
been poorly attended. Monthly de-
bates between the two clubs were insti-
tuted this Winter, but have signally
failed to revive the waning interest.
Curiously enough, the Freshman club,
which it was feared would suffer by
the discontinuance of Freshman debat-
ing contests with Yale, has enjoyed a
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THE PRESENT SITUATION
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mOVY LNG
. isclearly efined in February .
‘By W. B. -Curtis:
The features of 1898 Bicycle Models are reviewed
and illustrated. Ice Hockey, Ice Yachting, Winter
Photography and Toboganning are the winter
pastimes which have a place in this issue.
OTHER FEATURES.
Self-Defense with the Single-Stick—The Revival
of Falconry — Australian Aboriginal Sports and
Wood-craft—Chicago to San Francisco a-wheel—
Fox Hunting inthe South—The Airedale Terrier—
A Week with the Singhalese — Snipe Shooting—
Doris, a Story of the Regulators—and the usual
editorials and records of current sporting events
written by the foremost authorities.
25 cents acopy. $3.00 a year.
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Yale Law School.
For circulars and other information apply to
Prof. FRANCIS WAYLAND,
Dean.
healthy growth. A Sophomore soci-
ety, organized to give the Freshman
club a competitor, has been similarly
well supported. This has led those
who have the debating interests of the
College at heart to conclude that simi-
lar clubs organized in the two upper
classes to complete an_ inter-class
league, would probably furnish the best
solution of the problem of arousing
greater interest. This plan will doubt-
less be adopted. The two old socie-
ties will then be united into an honor-
ary society, to which men shall be
eligible only by meritorious work in
the class clubs. Other schemes have
been proposed, but this one promises
the best results, and its successful
operation in part in the two lower
classes, in spite of the restricted class
feeling here at Harvard, is thought to
augur well for the larger league.
Under the new regime, the real work
in debating will be done in the class
clubs, to which all members of the
several classes will be respectively
eligible. Weekly meetings will be
held, inter-class debates arranged, with
a possible championship series near the
close of the season. Class loyalty, as
well as the reward of an election to the
honorary society, will furnish incentive
to good work. Whether the proposed
plan proves successful or not, it is cer-
tain that the experiment must be tried
and promptly, or the lessening interest
in debating among the upper class men
will be deleterious to the success of
future Harvard teams, and more espe-
cially in the contest against Prince-
ton’s debaters late in the present year.
Harvard has yet to encounter defeat in
debate at the hands of the New Jersey
college, and this clean record will. be
maintained, it is hoped, by means of
the new stimulus of inter-class rivalry.
The problem of properly selecting
the best speakers for the intercollegiate
contests is attracting attention with
the prospect that a change will be
made in the near future. Under the
present method of choosing the speak-
ers, it is claimed the competitors are
not thoroughly tested. Each speaker
is allowed only five minutes, and there
is no opportunity for rebuttal. It is
proposed in the future to hold a series
of debates on different evenings, at
which the candidates wil be weeded
out and the best men given an oppor-
tunity in a final contest to show their
ability in a longer argument and in
rebuttal. This will be similar to the
system which now obtains at Yale.
J. WEsToN ALLEN.
a, a>
vey
Winner of the “Lit. Medal.
The gold medal annually awarded
by the Yale Literary Magazine for the
best essay in a special competition has
been given to Isham Henderson, ’go,
of Louisville, Ky. The title of his
essay is “Alphonse Daudet, The Pro-
vencal.”
The judges were Prof. H. A. Beers,
69, and Mr. C. W. Wells, ’96.
