if they wish their sons not to spend their
time attending clubs, theaters, and questionable places of amusement,
but to devote their attention to attaining true scholarship.

The student's manner of living varies according to location and
circumstances. In Eastern colleges the students reside mostly in
dormitories located on the college campus, or in fraternity chapter
houses, and secure their board outside in clubs or restaurants. These
rooms rent from $50 to $300 a year, and the price of board varies
from $3 to $7 per week. The dormitory system does not prevail to any
great extent among Western colleges. Students rent rooms in private
residences, paying from 50 cents to $2 per week, and find board in
families or clubs at a cost of $2 to $3 per week. The students
boarding in clubs are comparatively free from restraints, and often
fail to cultivate the social amenities and table manners which should
characterize a cultivated gentleman. For this reason, boarding in
private families, where a woman's presence usually lends grace and
dignity to social life at the table, is better for the student. The
college student cannot afford, for the sake of cheapness in club life,
to become rude or coarse. The people look to the college-trained man
for that inherent polish which reveals itself in good taste and
refined manners. Success and usefulness in life often depend upon
these small matters.

The students in American colleges are not measured by social and
financial standards. The colleges sustain democratic ideals and
methods by discouraging costly luxury, and encouraging simplicity of
living without making life bare of all that is elevating and refining.
They believe that "plain living and high thinking" is the way to call
out the talent hedged about by financial difficulties, as well as to
spur those gifted with fortune to higher aims and nobler efforts. The
student who has the promise of a large inheritance has intimate social
relations with those whose only capital is brain and heart. The true
college test is thus expressed by President Thwing: "Brain is the only
symbol of aristocracy, and the examination room the only field of
honor; the intellectual, ethical, spiritual powers the only test of
merit; a mighty individuality the only demand made of each, and a
noble enlargement of a noble personality the only ideal." This is a
healthful condition in college life, and tends to develop in the
student self-respect and indepen