USA > Ohio > Butler County > Oxford > Old Miami, the Yale of the early West > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9
102
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
During the spring of '39, when this conflict took place, one of the hardest fighters on the anti-fraternity side was an aggressive young junior with the good old Covenanter name, John Knox. He was a natural leader and did much in person to bring about the ousting of the Alphas from the halls. The things he said concerning them, and the masterful and convincing arguments with which he disposed of all fraternities everywhere, legend does not record. Rather lucky this for John's reputation for consistency. ยท For even as he fought, and in the leisure moments when the smoke of battle cleared away and men had time for girls and books and meditations, John got to thinking. After all, those pesky Alphas were a pretty good sort. Arrogant and conceited-whew! But nearly all of them had good minds and Lept strictly to business, and they cert only did have an
103
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
organization there that was some pump- kins. Their solidarity and team-work were a wonder, and they had the nervy spirit of good losers, too. After all, where was the harm in such a brother- hood?
In the midst of these meditations John went home on a vacation trip. At the psychological moment he went brows- ing about dad's book shelves one day and made a find. It was a rare old volume, shape and title since forgotten, which re- tailed a little fact and much hair-raising fiction about the chivalric practices of the Middle Ages. Particularly creepy were the accounts of the Knights Templar and similar secret orders of the period. The knightly vows and pledges were re- peated, and strange and fascinating sketches given of their secret history and inside workings. As Knox read, and thrilled with delicious horror at the read-
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
ing, the notion suddenly struck him all in a heap: "There are plenty more good men in Miami. These secret orders are worth while, and fascinating, too. Why not organize a Greek fraternity all our own, to have all the good qualities of those conceited Alphas and none of their undesirable ones?" Alpha Delta Phi's lessons in practical politics were coming home to roost. Even as she had done it unto the Union and the Erodelphian, John Knox was preparing then and there to set up a competing business in his own back yard.
To the unprejudiced observer there is one feature about Knox's plan, novel enough in his day, that gets to be pain- fully familiar as time goes on. The new brotherhood was to have all the good qualities of Alpha Delta Phi and none of its bad ones. In the same way, nine years after, Phi Delta Theta was to have all
105
104
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
the virtues of the Alphas and Betas to- gether, and of course none of their obvi- ous defects. Likewise D. K. E., breaking away from the Phi Delts, was to have all the excellence of the parent chapter, etc., etc. Four years later, Sigma Chi, sprung from the Dekes, was again to par- take only of the good and leave the bad to soothe the bereaved survivors. The logic of this process seems complimentary enough to Sigmi Chi, but appears to put the Alphas in a rather unpleasant light. Then, too, one wonders where that con- stant remainder of bad keeps coming from. .
.
When Knox returned to college he. immediately got hold of his closest friend, Sam Marshall, and poured the entire plan into his rather willing ears. Mar- shall had been interested in the recent exposure of the ritualistic work of some popular secret order, and was all agog
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
over grips and pass-words and hailing- signals of distress. He was already mut- tering secret mottoes in his sleep and scribbling cabalistic signs all over his text-books. He entered into the whole scheme with much enthusiasm,-so much indeed that to the day of his death neither man could say positively which composed the first draft of the constitution.
About all they knew about Greek fraternities was that there had to be a name-some two or three Greek letters -which should be the initials of the Greek words in the secret motto. It seems a little back-handed, but they con- fess to selecting the name first, choosing such letters as sounded well together, and then leafing through the lexicon till they evolved a motto that would fit the letters. The name selected was Beta Theta Pi. Then came the badge-in those days an- other element of secrecy. They seem to
107
106
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
have had some knowledge of that worn by their rivals, for the form adopted was little more than a variation on the old breastplate of righteousness then weight- ing down the vests of the Alphas, but carefully hidden underneath their coats. The constitution took the most time. Apparently the two boys worked together on this; for both, you remember, had dis- tinct recollections of making out the first version of it. It was really a simple but dignified document, built on such whole- some ideas as improvement in knowledge and scholarship, mutual support and as- sistance, and absolute faith and confi- . dence among the brethren.
Naturally enough, a few traces of Knox's medieval fairy stories crept in. Much was made, for instance, of the per- fect number nine and its factors, even to the placing of three stars on the badge. Membership in a chapter was to be not
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
less than three nor more than nine. Wearing of the badge was solemnly pro- hibited while in college. Most gruesome of all in its suggestion of occult and un- holy practices was the obligation seri- ously imposed on each initiate in relation to his fellows, that "their friends should be his friends and their enemies his enemies." We are not surprised to learn that some of these rules were modified as time went on.
Once the constitution was completed, it was easy enough to get material for the goat. There were plenty of good men, and Knox and Marshall chose carefully from these the few congenial spirits they required. Soon Beta Theta Pi was able to extend its skirmish lines quietly through- out the institution, as the Alphas had done at first, and to gather unto itself a fat and comfortable share of col- lege honors and distinctions. Their men
109
108
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
were vigorous and alert, entering freely into every student activity. Gradually the harsh rule of the literary halls against the Greeks was undermined, and in 1843 the Alphas came like prodigals back into the fold. Thus the societies had no trouble in presenting a united front on the growing question of faculty super- vision.
It's a hard matter, these days, to ap- preciate the difficulties in the path of "Pater" Knox and his cronies. Keeping the very organization secret seems no vital matter in our eyes, but the strong chance of faculty opposition made it so to them. Then, too, there's such a joy in springing a thing full-fledged before a gaping and wide-eyed populace, instead of having curious and uninvited neighbors watch you stick every feather on. It's hard to keep them guessing, too, when these deepest secrets of your heart must
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
be rehearsed and even your ritual enacted on the same floor with two dozen prying youngsters, especially if there's a broken lock on the door and the windows won't track. In this case one fellow did learn too much. This was Grimke Swan, a par- ticularly tiresome bore, whom nobody had use for. What was worse, he demanded to be made a member, or he would divulge that precious little he had already learned. In sheer desperation they hit upon a plan. Swan was given a nice lit- tle burlesque initiation and allowed to buy a badge, but was then informed that the society had no written constitution, would take no more members, and did not made a practice of holding meetings. He was solemnly admonished as to secrecy, especially about his pin, and was cast cheerfully adrift. Luckily he drifted straight out of college at the end of the term, or he might have made things warm fel hnathana
/
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
In the winter of 1847 occurred the largest concerted prank in the history of Miami,-the Snow Rebellion. The members of both fraternities, being in- clined to get underneath the spotlight in everything and being on none too loving terms with the faculty, were of course ring-leaders in this. But the experience played havoc with their bands of choice but restless spirits. When the snow fell there were eight Alphas and eight Betas in college. Of the former there were two each of seniors, juniors and sophomores, together with one freshman and one prep; of the latter, four seniors, two juniors, a sophomore and a prep. When the ax fell and got through falling, there were two Beta seniors left to graduate, and not an Alpha on the premises. This doesn't mean wholesale expulsion, as will appear later; but chiefly for reasons connected with those eventful nights these men lost
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
interest in the institution. At any rate the Greek fraternities were left in a state of general disability.
At this juncture appeared Phi Delta Theta, conceived and instituted by Mor- rison and Wilson. In some ways it's an old tale retold. Again there is the inten- tion to discard the despised shortcomings of others; again the choosing of euphon- ious letters from the Greek alphabet and the finding of a motto that will fit. But there are two marks of distinction. Phi Delta Theta was not organized in the spirit of rivalry, for at that moment there was not enough combined opposition to utter one expiring croak. Neither was it an organization out of tune with the fac- ulty. Rather, the professors were friend- ly to it from the start, and before long their names began even to decorate its rolls. Indeed with this society a new era of fellowship dawned between instructor
113
112
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
and instructed, and for some years it was a rather extended practice among frater- nities to solicit and initiate faculty peo- ple, together with such imported orators and itinerant lecturers as might add their bit of tinsel to the general glitter of fame.
These first two Phi Delts planned wisely and well. Between them a consti- tution and a fraternal bond were drafted, and the fellows they desired set apart. All were expected to fall into the plan but Ardivan Rodgers, the lad who afterward displayed a mind of his own in submit- ting an Erodelphian appointment to the faculty. Rodgers was known to like the crowd, but to oppose all secret societies. Fortunately Morrison was generally sup- posed to have the same prejudice. So all the prospective members were called to- gether one night in Wilson's room, where they signed an obligation of secrecy-not in blood-and then listened to their host
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
propose his plan. All agreed to it . promptly but Morrison and Rodgers. Then Wilson turned his guns on Mor- rison, who yielded his life-long opinions (sly old rogue!) only after a good half- hour of persuasion. Rodgers listened eagerly and fell into the trap so easily that Wilson almost fainted. "This soci- ety," he explained carefully, "is really not secret to me, you see."
Then came the usual experiences of these infant secret-foundries. Meetings were held at each other's rooms, where business was transacted in thrilling stage whispers. In pleasant weather they assembled on the creek bank and put out sleepy pickets. Their existence was not widely known. In fact various of the boys were invited to help revive the other societies that had gone defunct. It is handed down in the archives that they proudly scorned these base and ignoble
115
114
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
offers, or words to that effect. Their badges were another variety of breast- plate, about the size of a young tea-tray. These, too, were kept under cover until the spring of '52, when they were at last flashed upon the world at a senior party.' 1 A Phi of the period, probably a sopho- more, wrote modestly to a friend of the effect produced: "The boys developed themselves in grand agony-agony in- deed of the Alphas and Betas, as glitter- ing of the golden shields drew tears from their eyes." Sounds like Homer, doesn't it?
These early Phi Delts were great experimenters. Like their esteemed friends the Betas, they were aggressive in passing a good thing along, and soon had lively young chapters established at various strategic points. Then they ' got hold of some kind of visionary plan, which nobody quite understood,
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
.
for a fraternal organization among their own graduates. "The Higher Order of Alumni," they called it. This wheel within a wheel was too much of a good thing, though, and survived only a couple of meetings. There was also the scheme of "bicameral chapters." Some one had started the notion that a chapter should have only a mere handful of active mem- bers, and Phi Delta Theta had limited this number to ten. When she reached her limit there were still some good fel- lows she hated to let go. A second chap- ter was created at Miami, with a name and organization all its own. This lin- gered on for some years, a cumbersome and awkward arrangement, until finally the partition was shattered and the two rooms became one.
It is well that a mere slave of a chron- icler approach the next period with lag- ging step and terror in his heart. For lo,
116
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
it is a period of division and strife, where brother's hand is raised against brother, and each sayeth unto other, "Bah, go to!" On either side in both tourneys there were good men and true, and every sad- eyed contestant felt that he was offering some of the dearest friendships of his life on that same old overcrowded altar of principle. Conservative and liberal were fighting in those little bands of Greeks, just as they have been at it, under one disguise and another, down through the ages. Out of the dust of both encounters gleamed the ruddy 'scutcheon of the Demon Rum, a proboscis gules above a thirst rampant; and as might be ex- pected, he was always with the liberals. The most peculiar thing about it lies right here. There was one party taking part in both the lists; but in one it contended as a dashing liberal; in the other as a stern conservative. So much for the con-
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
The first arena was the premises of Phi Delta Theta. They had seen some three years of prosperous existence, and were taking themselves very seriously. It was a splendid crowd, with the stubby figure of Ben Harrison as a leading spirit, when he could spare the time from Scott's. For some months they had been considering a total-abstinence regulation, but one faction claimed that this was a matter of a man's own conscience. Har- rison and his cohort, with some faculty backing, urged the measure upon them. The opposition kept shoving it on into the future. Then one day Gid. McNutt came laughing into their midst, and the prop- osition could be shoved no farther. You have known men like Gid .: brilliant, mag- netic, impulsive, devil-may-care; the kind of man you love in spite of you, and your heart aches as you watch him take some fatal plunge with a song on his lips.
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
The whole chapter wanted Gid. at once, and soon had his promise to join them. But the total abstinence law was never framed that Gid. could keep. He was always falling by the wayside, to rise again in the ashen daybreak and give a tearful pledge of everlasting rectitude. And he meant it too. He joined the col- lege temperance society, was made its prosecuting officer, and bless me if the imp of the perverse didn't tempt him into stumbling on the very nights when the society was meeting.
The. chapter told him he must straighten up or never be initiated. He promised sincerely; and two weeks later went through the ceremony happy as a king, but somewhat more than half seas over. Then came the crisis. One party was for expelling him at once, together with another brother who had assisted rather largely in his excesses. The lib-
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
erals argued for forgiveness and still one more trial: they had lost count just how many that would make. Finally, in the heat of controversy, they asserted that if these men went they would go too. Sol- emnly they approached a ballot, dreading all of them to face the issue. At last it came. McNutt and his convivial comrade groped their way from the room, and after them came three others of the little group-never again to enter the counsels of the chapter. Under an elm in the campus the culprits and the bolters met and swore allegience, while back in the dimly-lighted little room, Phi Delta Theta sat silent but triumphant after her bap- tism of blood.
Before long Gid. had one dramatic op- portunity to right himself before the stu- dent body, and his friends, the bolters, quickly appropriated a share in the glory.
121
.
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
The abolition question was then waxing hotter every day, and the advent of some professional spellbinder was almost a weekly occurrence. An eloquent specimen of the class, the rabid abolitionist James G. Birney, appeared one night before a large audience in the Town Hall, pre- sented his case vigorously, and then-as was his wont-challenged discussion. A prominent student-some folks say he was a Phi Delt-rose to reply. But when he was well under way, Birney directed a few adroit questions which left the poor fellow floundering and defeated. Some- body called for Gid., and he was on a. chair in a moment. Evidently this was not the night for temperance society, and he was at his best. As he always could, he won his hearers' hearts at once. Then for two hours he assailed the attitude of extremists on both sides, pleading earnestly for the preservation of the
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
Union. The lecturer confessed his sur- prise and asked a day to prepare his re- joinder; but somehow business called him out of town next morning after breakfast. Gid. enjoyed a triumphal entry into chapel, with his loyal cronies tagging gleefully along behind.
Soon after this, Jacob Cooper, a D. K. E. from Yale whose parents lived near Oxford, visited at Miami and became acquainted with this Gideon's band. He proposed to them a chapter of his own fraternity, and ultimately succeeded in establishing it. Thus the Dekes appeared in the University in 1852, and entered their claim for recognition. Into their ranks came such men as Millikin and Runkle and Whitelaw Reid, and in four short years they were called upon to face a crisis exactly parallel to the one that had created them. Once more conserv- ative faced liberal. Once more one caught
128
122
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
a glimpse occasionally of the proboscis gules above a thirst rampant. Once more, indeed, there came a parting of the ways, and the liberals groped their way out into the darkness to found a brotherhood of their own.
As Harrison seemed to dominate the earlier controversy, so Reid stands out as leading spirit in this, with Minor Mil- likin, then an alumnus, just behind the scenes, ready to enter when needed as the deus ex machina. The immediate occa- sion of conflict this time was political. Reid was then a long-haired, pale-faced, graceful youth, nervous, industrious and ambitious, and in fraternity life his fa- vorite hobby was compact organization. The liberals could not go with him quite all the way. Their motto was "Dum vivi- mus vivamus," and they couldn't see what difference it made to J. Whitelaw if they chose to readit "Dum bibimus bibamus."
"DUM VIVIMOS VIVAMUS"
124
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
Then, too, this caucus business looked all right to them, when there was no oppo- nent that you wished to vote for. But Reid insisted always, in storm or calm, on strict obedience to King Caucus.
The slate was in the making for the winter Exhibition of the Erodelphian So- ciety, 1856. "For chief orator, J. White- law Reid." Nobody could quibble or ob- ject on that selection, for Reid's fame was recognized far and wide. "For poet -? " There was the rub. Nary a Deke had ever courted the Muses so that you would care to notice it; and if the sad truth must be known, few of them could have told a caesura from an anaepest. But Reid would fain have a poet, and for him there was no joy in life until a candidate for bardic honors made the slate complete. Then the liberals, with Runkle and Cald- well at their head, walked calmly into Erodelphian Hall and voted for a rank
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
outsider to do their poetizing. From this the conflict started. Charges and coun- tercharges were flung about recklessly, that night after the election, and when the chapter adjourned, somewhere in the morning hours, it seemed hopelessly di- vided.
Two or three later meetings failed to patch up the rent, although alumni mem- bers were constantly insisting on a recon- ciliation. One night in the heat of the contention a commanding presence strode into the room. With it came an equally commanding voice that said: "Gentle- men, some of the younger of you do not know me. I am Minor Millikin of Ham- ilton, and I demand, in behalf of the alumni of the chapter, that you abide by the rulings of the society." In a second the doughty Runkle was on his feet. "I," he declared, "am the Sultan of Turkey and the Grand Llama of Beloochistan. I
206.
1
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
didn't join this society to be anybody's tool. There's my answer!" He flung his badge jingling on the table, and with his fellow liberals stalked from the room.
Soon this refractory half-dozen raised as their new standard the white cross of Sigma Phi, and stood ready to defend it against all comers. One fellow jeered at their badges the first morning at chapel, or at least Runkle thought he did. Promptly after prayers the future gener- alissimo mixed things up with him in a masterly manner and fellow Greeks had no little trouble in pulling them apart. Then somebody made away with the ritual and sacred stage-properties of the new Sigs. They looked large black holes of suspi- cion through Delta Kappa Epsilon, and immediately went to work training a new goat. This time they called themselves Sigma Chi and busily took up the prob- lem of chapter extension. Fortunately
128
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
this was highly successful, for by some local mismanagement the Alpha chapter became inactive in a short while. The only other fraternity ever represented in Miami was Delta Upsilon, from the year 1868.
.
Heigho, for the quarrels and conflicts of college days! It seems a shame, almost, to draw them out from the cur- tained recesses of memory and expose them to the daylight. The lads who thrust and parried in them were soon to have their differences levelled and their wounds healed in the fiery ordeal of a real conflict. When Runkle's pain-racked body lay upon the field of Shiloh, with wounds pronounced as mortal, Whitelaw Reid took no thought of school-boy dif- ferences, but the busy war-correspondent found time to pay glowing tribute to the gallantry and worth of this old college comrade. You who are college men will
1
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
read between the lines of this extended tale of woes and see the real richness of the life that was there. The rest of you must remember that chronicles are too often built only out of disturbance and strife.
The Female Institutions
T HE other day someone mentioned it as an amusing coincidence that so soon after the young manhood of the Miami Valley began assembling at Ox- ford, the attractive young ladies of the vicinity should have been possessed with a marked yearning for higher education in the same environment. Amusing, per- haps; but as old and natural as the proces- sion of the equinoxes. About that spa- cious old campus, when its greensward teems with Johnny-jump-ups and its foli- age glistens in the sunlight of June, there surely lingers the primeval loveliness of the first paradise. Who would expect that the splendid specimen of man, lithe-
1
THE FEMALE INSTITUTIONS
limbed and stainless, that came in the early days to eat of the tree of knowl- edge there, should munch his little apple contentedly alone? Faithfully, as we shall see, were the scriptures fulfilled. From next the great red, throbbing heart of man the rib was quietly extracted, and when he awoke and did behold, there stood beside him, demurely curtseying, one like unto himself but fairer. And the only tempter that has ever entered the garden flew on gossamer wings, car- ried a bent bow in his infant hands, and wore no attire to speak of. He has come often, too.
Indeed, from the very opening of the University, there were facilities about the village for the education of girls. At first these were apparently private ven- tures, the refined and eminently harmless "dames' schools" of our forefathers. That didn't prevent their taking impres-
THE FEMALE INSTITUTIONS
sive names; as is indicated by a casual statement, in the Literary Focus for October, 1827, that "a female academy has also been opened in the village of Ox- ford during the last session." Now "fe- male academy" sounds wholesomely in- tellectual. Whatever may be the facts of the case, that name lifts you straight out from the sensitive region where chill households of simpering damsels are pre- sided over by indigent maiden-ladies in lavender, who have undertaken, for a reasonable stipend, to impart to their charges the proprieties of social converse, a slight knowledge of the spinnet and the harpsichord and a marvelous dexterity with samplers, hair-wreaths and waxen posies. It brings you face-to-face with real learning, adorned with blue spec- tacles and bluer stockings, and no frills to fuss over.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.