COLLEGE TRADITIONS AND SPIRIT


College life in America is rich in traditions. Customs are handed down
class by class and year by year until finally they acquire the force of
law. Each college and university has a community life and a character of
its own.

The spirit of each institution abides within its walls. It cannot be
invaded by an outsider, or ever completely understood by one who has not
grown up in it. The atmosphere of a college community is conservative.
It is the outcome of generations of student custom and thought, which
have resolved themselves into distinct grooves.

It requires a thorough understanding of the customs of college men,
their antics and pranks, to appreciate the fact that the performers are
simply boys, carrying on the traditions of those gone before.
Gray-haired graduates who know by experience what is embodied in college
spirit, join feelingly in the old customs of their college days, and in
observing the new customs which have grown out of the old.

These traditional customs, some of them humorous, and others deeply
moving in their sentiment, are among the first things that impress the
freshman. He does not comprehend the meaning of them at once, nor does
he realize that they are the product of generations of students, but he
soon learns that there is something more powerful in college life than
the brick and mortar of beautiful buildings, or high passing marks in
the classroom. When he comes to know the value and the underlying spirit
of the traditions of his college, he treasures them among the enduring