1912–13 Volume 37 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

98 THE SCROLL.READ THE FRATERNITY MAGAZINETlie unpalatable truth is sometimes forced home on an editorial staff thatvery few subscribers really read the magazine. The contributor usually turnsthe pages hurriedly iintil he finds his own article, and reads it critically witha view to misprints and its general effect in type. The rest of the magazine heruns through In search of some article of especial interest, or closes the bookuntil some more convenient day. The non-contributor follows much the satoecourse,' with the exception that he may reach the chapter letter from his ownchapter, or the personal notes, before he finds anything which holds his attentionlong enough to interest him in the substance of the article. Some readthe body of the magazine attentively, and find all the chapter letters of interest,but close the reading with the page first in front of the exchanijes and collegenotes. Much time has been spent upon the preparation of material which iscalculated to be of profit and interest to fraternity circles at large, probablyto our own in particular. Much of our apparent disinterestedness is merelyignorance of the workings of fraternlfies aside from our own college. Theexchanges from other magazines are copied especially to give us. an Insight intothe doings of our fellow organizations In Greekdom, and into the policies ofother colleges. Be a consistent reader of your magazine. You will find yourfraternity a vital power of which you did not conceive before.—Z T A Themiseditorial.ORIGIN OF PHI GAMMA DELTA'S "PIG DINNERS"A memorial window was accepted in honor of the late Frank Norris, novelist,and member during his lifetime of the fraternity, on fhe occasion of theannual "pig dinner" at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house Saturday nightA memorial chair to Norris, tbe gift of Bishop Morgan of San Francisco, wasalso accepted.The dinner celebrated the occupancy by the fraternity of its new house onBancroft Way, above Bowditch street. Alumni members attended from all overthe state as well as the entire chapter from Stanford.Twenty years ago Saturday Charter day, Frank Norris, then a student ofthe university, captured a pig in the Berkeley hills and returned with it intriumph to the fraternity house. It formed the piece de resistance of the mealthat evening. Ever since, the "pig dinner" has been an annual event onMarch 23, both here and with chapters of Phi Gamma Delta in all other universities.The memorial window to Norris, which is to be installed in the new fraternityhouse, is the gift of his mother, Mrs. Gertrude Norris of San Francisco,and was made in England at a cost of $800. It depicts a scene from "TheOctopus," one of Norris's best known novels. A feature of Saturday night's^'pig dinner" was, the reading of "The Exile's Toast," written by Norris in1900, in response to a request from the California chapter while he was InNew York.The new Phi Gamma Delta house cost upwards of $35,000, and adjoins, theolder residence of the fraternity which was at Bancroft and Bowditch. It isone of the finest fraternity houses about the campus. Members of the fraternitywill occupy it in a fortnight.—Daily Gazette, Berkeley, Cal., March 25,-I912.