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

548 THE SCROLLPHI BETA KAPPA NOTESThose who have read "The History of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity" willrecall that in the original Articles of Union of the Fraternity local brancheswere called not chapters but "colleges", and the word chapter was notsubstituted for colleges until the adoption of a new constitution in 1871, Sofar as known, no other fraternity ever used the word college as a designationfor a chapter.An eighteen page sketch of the Harvard chapter of the oldest Greek-lettersociety ^ B K, now an honorary society (founded at William and Mary in1776 and established at Harvard in 1781), appears in the * B K Key forJanuary, 1913, in which the editor, who is also the Secretary of the society.Rev, O. M. Voorhees, D. D., 350 East 146th Street, New York, says;Those who read carefully the excellent account of the 4> B K at Harvard willnote the difficulty our historians meet in connection with the word "chapter," whichdid not come into general use until near the middle of the last century. In the earlierdays the various organizations were variously designated, sometimes as branches, ormeetings and sometimes as Alphas, But when Betas began to be formed, some generaldesignated term became necessary, and the word chapter came into use. The Secretarywould be pleased to receive information as to the origin of the term and thetime when its use became general. Manwhile, we find ourselves under the practicalnecessity of using it as though it had been in use from the early days of the fraternity.The first of ^ B K's chapters to have a home of its own is that at Amherst,The Key says:The * B K chapter at Amherst is to be congratulated on the possession of a permanenthome. In the Morris Pratt Memorial Hall, erected last year by Mr, CharlesM, Pratt, and presented to Amherst College by the donor, three rooms are set apartin perpetuity for the Amherst chapter. They were dedicated with appropriate exercisesin December. Let us hope that this will be the beginning of a general movement andthat other colleges and universities will see the propriety of properly housing their4' B K chapters.# B K now has 77 chapters. The council, at a meeting in March, recommendedthat the senate (convention) In September should reinstate the chapterat the University of Alabama. The Key says: "The application for a charterby the American students studying at Oxford University, England, was thenconsidered. In view of the unique character of this application, it was resolvedto postpone further consideration until the meeting of the senate," Fiveinstitutions were recommended as worthy of charters—Washington (St. Louis),Lawrence (Wis.), Drake (Iowa), Carleton (Minn,) and Pomona (Cal.),Three applications were laid over for further consideration in September—those from Pennsylvania (Gettysburg), North Dakota and Randolph-MaconWbman's College, Three were laid over until 1916—Trinity (N. C.), LakeForest (111.) and William Jewell (Mo.).MIAMI IN THE FIFTIESThe AKE Quarterly for February, 1913, contains a number of articlesrelating to Whitelaw Reid, who was the most distinguished member of theMiami chapter of A K E. J, Calvin Hutchinson, Miami, '56, who withWhitelaw Reid, his classmate, joined A K E in 1852, says: "In that daythere was more secrecy among the fraternities; our times and places of meetingwere secret. We often met on the hillsides, on the banks of Four-mile,and our exercises were conducted by the light of a lantern." General Ben P.Runkle, Miami, '57, who led in the secession from AKE that resulted in theorganization of S X, writes:Miami was rude and may have lacked culture, as men count culture in this day,but Miami was not coarse. Her buildings were few and plain, but they were solid.There was the big, square main building with its broad halls, large rooms and loftyceilings. It was probably never warm in winter, as warmth is counted in this steamheatedage, and there was not a carpet or a rug under the roof; but that matterednot at all to the sons of a young nation that were gathered there. There were thetwo dormitories—the Southeast and the Northeast—plain brick barns with hall, rooms,doors, windows and little else. The shells of the old dorms stand there yet, but what