t--which would fling courage into me, fill my veins with
flame--and it troubled me to wonder what that thing would be. Had any
one told me, then, that it would be Judaism, I should have either
laughed or been insulted.

For I was just as much afraid as ever of what hardships my religion
might work for me at college. I had as much fear, as much abhorrence of
the truth, in that regard. I wanted so much to forget it--to be one of
the other sort, little caring for creed in any form, but wishing I were
safe in the comfort of having been born into the faith of the majority.
As I looked at it then, I was going into these new four years with a
tremendous handicap scored against me. It seemed so unfair: I cared so
little for Jewish things, yet I would have to be identified with them
throughout my entire course. I had learned, by now, that I could not
escape them.

I went into college with a deeper sense of the injustice of it all than
I had ever had. I was going with the feeling that, come what may, I
should have to bow before the inevitable stigma of my race--And yet, I
hoped so yearningly that it would be otherwise. I hoped--and
dreamed--and laughed at my dreams, and told myself that college men were
only boys, after all: boys as bigoted, as cruel in their prejudices as
any that I had met at high school or military academy.

And perhaps I was justified in this last opinion. For, when I appeared
on the campus the next morning, headed for the dean's office to file my
registration, I was met by a ratty, little sophomore who made me buy a
second-hand freshman cap from him at four times its original value.

And when he had my money in his pocket, and was a safe distance across
the green from me, he began to laugh and shout:

"Oi, oi! oi, oi!"

So that this was my introduction into college life.

VIII

WITHIN THE GATES

This initial experience did not frighten me. I came up to the first day
of college in the firm and joyous belief that here, if anywhere, that
old bugbear of my past school days would be absent. I came into sight of
buildings that were new to me, and oh, how stately to my freshman eyes!
I came across a campus that was golden with the autumn grass, where red
leaves filtered down from old elms, and where, from heights, I caught
glimpses of the university's private parks, still green and soft, and of
the river beyond--and of the clean flanks of white stone buildings and
marble colonnades, half hidden i