ent of satisfaction. He did not pomade his hair, and he
parted it on the side as he had when he came to college. True, he had
tried the new fashion, but after scanning himself carefully in the
mirror, he decided that he looked like a "blond wop"--and washed his
hair. He was guilty, however, of the next crime mentioned.

"The same thing is true of clothes," Henley was saying. "Last year every
one wore four-button suits and very severe trousers. This year every one
is wearing Norfolk jackets and bell-bottomed trousers, absurd things
that flop around the shoes, and some of them all but trail on the
ground. Now, any one who can't afford the latest creation or who
declines to wear it is promptly called wet.

"And, as I said before, you insist on the same standardization of your
minds. Just now it is not _au fait_ to like poetry; a man who does is
exceedingly wet, indeed; he is effeminate, a sissy. As a matter of
fact, most of you like poetry very much. You never give me such good
attention as when I read poetry. What's more, some of you are writing
the disgraceful stuff. But what happens when a man does submit a poem as
a theme? He writes at the bottom of the page, 'Please do not read this
in class.' Some of you write that because you don't think that the poem
is very good, but most of you are afraid of the contempt of your
classmates. I know of any number of men in this college who read vast
quantities of poetry, but always on the sly. Just think of that! Men pay
thousands of dollars and give four years of their lives supposedly to
acquire culture and then have to sneak off into a corner to read poetry.

"Who are your college gods? The brilliant men who are thinking and
learning, the men with ideals and aspirations? Not by a long shot. They
are the athletes. Some of the athletes happen to be as intelligent and
as eager to learn as anybody else, but a fair number are here simply
because they are paid to come to play football or baseball or what not.
And they are worshiped, bowed down to, cheered, and adored. The
brilliant men, unless they happen to be very 'smooth' in the bargain,
are considered wet and are ostracized.

"Such is the college that you write themes about to tell me that it is
perfect. The college is made up of men who worship mediocrity; that is
their ideal except in athletics. The condition of the football field is
a thousand times more important to the undergraduates and the alumni
than the number of books