hort of disastrous to
elect a Jew to any of our fraternities in the present situation."

I rang off. It was something to know that I was even being considered
for membership--but it was disastrous, that was all--disastrous!

When I was out upon the campus again I saw that painters were already at
work obliterating the sign. They had whitewashed the "_Out With the_"
away, and there was nothing left upon the wall but a huge, red

"JEWS."

And thank God, I could laugh at the incident!

XVII

MANY IMPULSES

Fair play comes first--and reasoning follows it. For fair play is always
an impulse. It comes when least expected.

That is how it was at the university. The incident of the big, painted
sign was practically the last demonstration against the influx of Jewish
boys. Waters, who made capital of everything, attempted to found a
formal organization dignified by the title of the Anti-Hebrew Collegiate
League, but when, at the first meeting, he was not elected to the
presidency, abandoned the project with bitter complaints against the
ingratitude of his fellow members. A little later on, when the tide had
turned in the opposite direction, he became the head of the Helping Hand
League, and was atop the wave of contrition.

For the tide did turn. Men are always afraid to carry their propaganda
beyond the point of the ridiculous. When tomfoolery turns to foolishness
its perpetrators are only too anxious for a chance to abandon it.

It was impossible to keep the thing out of the newspapers. The day after
that sign incident, there was a lurid story to be read at each of the
city's breakfast tables and in the evening subways. New York took it up
and made it a matter of shocked debate for a day and a half. The
president of the university, in his quarterly sermon in chapel, spoke
fervently of toleration and the gentle spirit.

The reaction was almost as hysterical as the movement itself. The little
Jewish freshmen--timid, frightened little mice, who had been going about
their classroom work and scurrying home and out of reach for so many
months--suddenly found themselves lauded as martyrs, as the best of
fellows.

One evening a deputation of them were waiting for me when I came in from
supper. They had formed a Jewish fraternity, and wished me to join with
them. Appeal to a Jewish philanthropist had brought them enough money to
lease a house near the campus. They were sure that they would have
sanction and