Social Life at Amherst.

In the last number of Lippincott's Magazine is a very interesting article by Mr. Rounds, Amherst, '87, on the social life at that college. The difference in the college life of an Amherst student and that of a Harvard student is very noticeable, as one reads the essay. The writer begins with an account of the daily life of an average student, following him through a Wednesday in term time, and leaving him in the evening seated with some friends at a table in "Frank's" the restaurant patronized by the college men, which must correspond somewhat to our "Adam's." "Passing from the favorite restaurant to the regular boarding clubs we shall find little ofinterest. All the clubs with a single exception are managed by towns-people. Amherst has no Memorial Hall. The landlady fixes the price of board, regulates the quality, and takes all comers till the "table" is full. In numbers, the clubs very from six to forty-five. Under the Amherst plan very little can be done in the way of choosing table mates. One finds his mates selected for him as the result of chance and gradations in the price of board, yet it often happens that one's associations at table are both pleasant and profitable.

In the matter o rooming, a great change has come about within a few years. Time was when none but unfortunate freshmen roomed elsewhere than "in college," but owing to the increasing dilapidation of the college building and the rapid increase of society houses, there has been a constant emigration from College Hill to the village. Of the students rooming in town above a hundred and ten live in society houses. These houses are owned by the Amherst chapters of the various Greek letter fraternities. Seven in number, they differ greatly in age, architecture, size, situation, convenience and elegance. Besides the secret lodge-room, the parlors and reading-room, each house has accommodations for from ten to eighteen students. They are really college homes; and, forming as they do, the recognized centres of society life, they are of the utmost importance as giving to the social life of the college its distinctive tone. Most society men take rooms in these houses for the last two or three years of their course."

The writer then mentions at length the social life of the students in the towns, there being very little opportunity for good society save in the families of the professors. "I must not omit one important social factor. Seven miles distant, across the valley, in Northampton, is Smith College, one of the leading woman's colleges in the East, nad a factor not to be ignored in any problem that concerns Amherst. Very few men go through collge without making their bow at Smith at least once, and about a fifth call there frequently. A reception in the winter, a concert or two, and a general reception at commencement complete the list of the social attractions at the "Hamp." No complaint is more commonly made in college than the complaint that class spirit is dying out. And there is much to support this belief. True, the lower classes manifest their esprit de corps in rushes, bonfires and like performances. But class spirit as it was twenty or thirty years ago, class spirtit such as exists to-day in many colleges, is a thing of the past at Amherst. And this change is due to the growth of Greek-letter societies, which have come to occupy first place in the loyalty of the students. Amherst secret societies are not to be confounded with class societies, for they are different in every respect. At Amherst a man joins a society in his freshman year, and continues his connection with it during the four years. Many attempts have been made to establish class societies; but their term of existence is generally short. At present there is no such society in college, if we except the Phi Beta Kappa, which is in no sense social. The four-year societies are eight in number, and enroll as members more than three-fourths of the college. As the most able and most influential men are chosen for the societies, the remaining fourth are without influence in college, and the societies meet with no opposition. Contrary to expectation, the strongest influences toward morality and industry are exerted by these societies-lazy men are made to work for honors, and wild fellows made to be-have. Society spirit causes just enough rivalry to that extravagant estimate of classmates and class interests, which is produced by class spirit; while this on the other hand prevents the clannishness and narrowness peculiar to society life. The result is a spirit which causes men to take a many, healthy view of college mates and college life, and in general to estimate men and things at their true value."