-Caveat Lector-
an excerpt from:
Borden of Yale '09
Mrs Howard Taylor
China Inland Mission
No date - pps.286
-----
William Whiting Borden was a wealthy gentleman, who passed on young. He had
some interesting things to say about Bones and secrecy.
Om
K
-----
May 24, 1906.
This was Tap Day, rather an interesting event to witness for the first
time.[1] On the first stroke of five o'clock the tapping began, and continued
for about three-quarters of an hour. Tapping is rather a misnomer, for they
hit the men most tremendously and rush them off to their rooms. B.C. went
Scroll and Keys and B.B. [William McCormick Blair] was the last man tapped
for Skull and Bones. Bill Barnes also went Bones. This is a great honour, as
it means lie is bead of that Society for next year. It's all very well in a
way, but they make entirely too much of it, it seems to me.
Well as a result of this excitement I haven't done my work as I should, and
must get busy now.
'The day when the senior societies make known their elections-the most
coveted honour in an undergraduate's career. Skull and Bones, Scroll and Keys
and Wolf's Head are the senior fraternities. As, collectively, they only take
in about forty-five new members each year, the large majority of aspirants is
necessarily disappointed.
p. 119
=====
CHAPTER VIII
SOPHOMORE
1906-1907. �t. 18-19
"His lamps are we,
To shine where He shall say:
And lamps are not for sunny rooms
Nor for the light of day;
But for dark places of the earth
Where shame and wrong and crime have 'birth;
Or for the murky twilight grey
Where wandering sheep have gone astray,
Or where the lamp of faith burns dim
And souls are groping after Him."
A. J. FLINT.
WAS it one result of the step taken at the Lakeville Conference that in
sophomore year Borden was drawn into most unexpected and fruitful] work for
others? The Living Water was flowing out in new, unlooked-for channels.
But first be bad to face the, fraternity question which bad been causing him
a good deal of exercise of mind. There were five junior (Greek letter)
societies at Yale, as well as the three senior fraternities already referred
to in Borden's letters. Unless a man had been elected in sophomore year to
membership in one of the five, the senior societies would as a matter of
course pass him by. Each of the junior societies received thirty new members
annually, and as with the senior fraternities, the greatest possible secrecy
was observed in all their proceedings. A fraternity man would "keep still" if
his society were even mentioned. It was this secrecy and the exclusiveness of
the system that troubled Borden, whose uncle had been one of the founders of
Wolf's Head, of which his brother wasa member. "He could have had anything
here that be wanted wrote Dr. Kenneth Latourette in this connection. But,
though feeling no less than others how hard it would be to be shut out,
Borden had his misgivings. His friend Charles Campbell recalls:
Shortly before College opened, Bill asked me to come to Poughkeepsie[1] to
talk over the society question. He invited James _,%T. Howard and E. F.
Jefferson at the same time. The discussion centred about such questions as
these: Could we as Christians go into a secret society? Would such action
harm or help our work for Christ? It was a new thought to most of us. We had
taken the society system -,-cry much for granted, and had never questioned
whether it was right or wrong for us to join one of the fraternities. But
Bill took nothing for granted. He was a servant of Jesus Christ, and
everything must be tested and bear the stamp of Christ's approval before be
would enter upon 1
The element of secrecy was one of Bill's difficulties with regard to joining
a fraternity. As a Christian be felt that he should not go into anything that
be did not clearly understand beforehand. Then he feared that the fraternity
system led to the forming of cliques in the college. He did not wish to be
set apart from the class, Further, Bill did not wish to have anything come
between him and God. He bad given himself wholeheartedly to Christ, to be His
follower pure and simple, and he wanted that relation kept always real.
Therefore he felt he had no right to vow allegiance to any secret, man-made
organization.
This attitude is entirely comprehensible to the thoughtful Yale man who
thinks back to his freshman year and remembers bow certain men lose their
beads and set out to make a fraternity as the be-all and end-all of
existence. I remember Bill's telling me of one classmate who said that be
should consider his college course a failure unless he made Delta Kappa
Epsilon among the first ten elected. Happily such insanity does not continue
long after the verdant stage. This man, as I remember, never made Delta Kappa
at all, but another fraternity in its second election, and I am sure he did
not, as a senior, think his course a failure -certainly we, his classmates,
did not.
[1] A place on one of the most beautiful reaches of the Hudson River, where
Mrs. Borden had taken a house to be near Vassar College in her daughter's
senior year.
The discussions at Poughkeepsie brought out much that was to be said on both
sides, but no definite decision was arrived at. The first fraternity
elections would not be given out until a month after college reopened, so
Borden and his friends went back with the question more or less unsettled.
The position this little group held in the estimation of their classmates is
seen in an interesting light as the letter continues:
A short time before the fraternity elections were given out, the class
elected the "Deacons';. At Yale, during our time, each class chose four men
at the beginning of sophomore year who acted as deacons in the University
Church and were charged with responsibility for the religious work of their
class. The day of the elections, Bill, Jim Howard, Pop Jefferson and I prayed
that God would guide the choice, so that the right people should be
appointed. As it turned out, the four of us were chosen! We always used to
laugh about that�it seemed so like praying for ourselves.
Soon after came the first elections to the junior fraternities. We had talked
together many times-since the visit in Poughkeepsie, and had discussed the
society question from every point of view. I think Bill talked the matter
over with Henry Wright and one or two others, and of course with his mother.
The final outcome was Bill's decision to go into no society. The others of us
decided to join if we had the opportunity.' Bill adhered to this decision all
through his college course, never joining a secret society, though lie did
join the Elihu Club, a non-secret organization, at the close of his junior
year.
That the decision cost him a good deal is evident from letters to his mother:
October 3, 1906.
Last night I had several callers-two bunches of Psi IT men, one of Delta
K.E., one of Zeta Psi. But as I'm not worrying, it didn't bother me, and I
was able to study between their visits. I knew most of them.
pps. 124-126
-----
Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
Omnia Bona Bonis,
All My Relations.
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
Kris
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