th
knowing.

Professor Scotch, Frank's guardian, had read this in certain newspaper
articles relating to Yale, and had expressed his regret that such should
be the case.

After coming to Yale Frank kept his eyes open to see to what extent such
a state of affairs obtained. At first it had seemed that the newspapers
were right, but he came to see that his position as freshman did not
give him the proper opportunity to judge.

In the course of time Frank came to believe that the old spirit was
still powerful at Yale. There were a limited number of young gentlemen
who plainly considered themselves superior beings, and who positively
refused to make acquaintances outside a certain limit; but those men
held no positions in athletics, were seldom of prominence in the
societies, and were regarded as cads by the men most worth knowing. They
were to be pitied, not envied.

At Yale the old democratic spirit still prevailed. The young men were
drawn from different social conditions, and in their homes they kept to
their own set; but they seemed to leave this aside, and they mingled and
submerged their natural differences under that one broad generalization,
"the Yale man."

And Merriwell was to find that this extended even to their social life,
their dances, their secret societies, where all who showed themselves to
have the proper dispositions and qualifications were admitted without
distinction of previous condition or rank in their own homes.

Each class associated with itself, it is true, the members making no
close friendships with members of other classes, with the possible
exception of the juniors and seniors, where class feeling did not seem
to run so high. A man might know men of other classes, but he never took
them for chums.

The democratic spirit at Yale came mainly from athletics, as Frank soon
discovered. Every class had half a dozen teams--tennis, baseball,
football, the crew and so on. Everybody, even the "greasy" grinds,
seemed interested in the something, and so one or more of these
organization had some sort of a claim on everybody.

Besides this, there was the general work in the gymnasium, almost every
member of every class appearing there at some time or other, taking
exercise as a pastime or a necessity.

The 'Varsity athletic organization drew men from every class, not
excepting the professional and graduate schools, and, counting the
trials and everything, brought together hundreds of men.

I