Holworthy Hall

“ I can think of two men in Grays—"
"I'm game," said Sewall. "Anybody but Kendall. He's hopeless!"
"Wrong again," snapped McHenry. "I'll bet you anything you care to name that you can civilize anybody—"
"Let's not fake anything," interposed Whittemore, "and for Pete's sake, let's not be cocky about it! We'll have our troubles, because most of the boobs will think we're simply out to patronize 'em! The idea, as I take it, is just to pump a little college spirit into some fellows who haven't any. Well—I'll take a shot at anybody but this Kendall microbe. He's absolutely out of the question. ”

“ An additional miracle was that the Yard, which customarily turns out only a small representation—for most of its representatives are confident that Mount Auburn Street will win anyway, so why waste time going over to cast a ballot—had turned out to a man—and it was these unexpected citizens who had beaten McHenry. ”

“ You fellows over here wear out leather on club chairs, and loaf through four years, and hog all the class offices, and sport all the pretty hatbands—and you call yourselves the college! And what chance does a poor man have? What chance has a man like me—Gad, McHenry! ”

“ A lot of wild Mount Auburn Street men like McHenry and his gang, I imagine."
"And it's supposed to have big men in it?"
"Biggest in college. Funny, isn't it? It only goes to show that we're all children, after all."
"Oh, tommyrot!"
"Well, look at it this way! We're none of us clubmen here. Suppose we all had a chance to go into a crack Mount Auburn Street club—provided we'd pull off some stunt like this one? ”

“ Said a poor boy hasn't a chance—he had a wonderful line of adjectives about Mount Auburn Street—it was fierce!"
"The trouble with you fellows," explained McHenry, "is that you don't analyze things. You can get at anybody if you go about it the right way."
"If we go into this thing seriously," declared Phillips, "Kendall's your meat, Pepper. Personally, I think it's up to us to get busy. Why don't we each pick out one or two of the worst specimens we know, and nurse 'em a bit! ”

“ You've always been fairly decent to me, McHenry."
"What we want is men of individuality—and you're one of 'em. Money doesn't count a hang. Neither do the clubs a man happens to be in. Of course, there are a few requirements you haven't yet met—"
"What in thunder are you talking about?"
"You'll have to report for the track squad," continued Pepper imperturbably, "and you'd better go out for one of the papers, anyway. That's essential. I'll guarantee you'll have a fair chance. Then it's most important that you get in touch with the Yard crowd. You're interested in debating, aren't you? ”

“ Simply because the whole class was there! And when the whole class got together, and the boobs saw that the same old crowd was running the affair, they all got cold feet! Why, just think of the number of men who come up here from country schools—without friends or money. They don't make clubs, they haven't a chance for teams, there's nothing for 'em to do but grind, and after a month or two they get sour! Now all four of us have tried this fool social-service work—why don't we begin at home for a change? ”

“ Whittemore was so conscious of the interest of his audience that he continued to pant somewhat longer than was entirely necessary.
"Good lungs—bully lungs," remarked Sewall, addressing the ceiling. "He hasn't the heaves—that's a fact! Now if you're positive he hasn't either the botts or the blind staggers—"
"Demonstrating the horrible effects of dissipation on the nervous system," suggested McHenry cheerfully. "It sure does ruin a man's wind for him." ”

“ This man McHenry is a wonder! Whittemore, you're another!"
"I?" faltered Whittemore.
"You certainly are! Pepper put me in the way of making a lot of money—that is, a lot for me. I've made a wad tutoring this last year—all Pep's friends, and I know darned well he was responsible for it. And then it was the—you know—that made me get out and mix with the fellows. The track work helped, but that wasn't all. When Pep told me that leadership was one of the requirements, I hustled! ”

“ The point is that Mount Auburn Street has run this class for two years, and we're sick of it. We've got to begin right now to make up a slate for junior officers, and work all summer and next fall for it. The big trouble is that we haven't any athletes in the Yard. Just the same, I think we can make it if we work hard enough. Kendall, how do you stand with McHenry's crowd? ”

“ No more social service for S. W. Whittemore, junior, except for cripples—"
"As a matter of fact," preached Phillips, "this whole Brooks House idea makes me rather tired. I can't see why in thunder we ought to beat it around town coaching little muckers to play football, and playing the dog-house to men's clubs, and all that sort of rot, when there's so much we could do right in the university. ”

“ Why, if you'd start in with the debating crowd, and then make a regular stump speaker out of yourself, roar about the street, and boom the Yard, you'd be absolutely sure! And what we want is a man who'd pull the rest of the ticket along with him. ”

“ Neither did he realize that it was indirectly, but no less certainly, due to the machinations of Pepper McHenry that a second delegation of his classmates tramped up the cold stairways of College House that night to inform him of his election to one of the minor fraternities which habitually takes in poor men who are making their mark in college life. ”