Show STUDENT LIFE a Protestant Episcopal Soand others some of which ciety take up active work in philanthropy or agitate the temperance question or follow out courses of Bible study The University has placed at the disposal of all these societies the new Phillips Brooks House In this connection a word should be saitl about religion at Harvard The University is as tolerant in the matter of creed or absence of creed as in the matter of race or social rank An effort is made to discourage atheism and agnosticism by the daily morning services in the UniThese brief talks versity Chapel are and attendance is entirely voluntary Vespers are held every Thursday afternoon from November to May and regular Sunday evening services are conducted either by a member of the University Board of Preachers or by some eminent divine invited by them On the whole it may be said that while religion at Harvard never obtrudes its'elf still ample opportunity is given each one to develop the spiritual side of his nature: and that far from exerting a deistic influence the tendency is decidedly in the opposite direction There is a large group of socieClub non-denominatio- nal ties partly social Many of partly literary these are Greek-lett- er Greek-lette- r clubs Formerly clubs laid great stress on secrecy but at present there is only one sothe “Medical ciety Faculty” whose membership proceedings whose very existence even is a complete mystery Every Class Day one sees a few seniors wearing a 113 black rosette with a piratical skull and cross bones and these are supposed to be members of the mysterious “Med Fac” to which is ascribed many wild pranks such as conferring an honorary degree on the Czar of Russia Two of the larger social clubs have won fame chiefly through the annual performance by the members of an original play or comic opera often of great intrinsic merit These are the Hasty Pudding Club and the Pi Eta Society Their plays are often bought by professional actors and many a student discovering here a bent for the dramatic arts enlists in the ranks of Thalia or Melpomene These student theatricals are a very prominent feature of student life “Der Deutsche Verein” and “Le Cercle Francais” each gives one or more plays annually respectively in German and French The secret society of the Sophomores the Delta Kappa Epsilon and other Greek-lettsocieties provide many omical spectacles incident to the initiation of new members Dressed in fantastic clownish apparel the novices are doomed to carry out various ludicrous performances in public either on the streets of Boston or on the playgrounds between the halves of athletic contests Space forbids more than a brief mention of the student publications The graduates have their own dignified monthly magazine but of greater interest to the students in general are the four publications of the undergraduates These are: er |