Stanford Student Letters and Memoirs

[written] 11

[typed] Saturday evening [written] Feb '97

[typed] My dearest Nannie

Last night was such fun, we girls had a perfectly spendid time and the dance was such a pretty one. The floor was not too crowded and the figures in the German were wonderfully prettyone where the electric lights were turned off and the men carried chinese langerns forming double lines and crossing the lanterns for the girls to walk under two by two - the effect was beautiful like willow the wisps; when it was time for the lights to come on it was found that the Freshmen had cut the wires so that for almost half an hour the illumination depended upon chinese lanterns and lamps. We girls had good partners and programs and it was so joplly to go together and I assure you the Zetes made lovely hosts even if they did lose the wager.

When we reached the Hall we talked it over in Helen's room which was as much fun as the dance. I send a Palo Alto that contains an article which ............... I am afraid will very much astonish you but you no less than the campus people. You see we girls have been feeling the whole year a lack of unity and a whole hearted feeling and generosity each for the other; beside that we have been and such a set always has been a very decided clique in the university holding itself aloof from the other fraternities and attracting people to it simply its non-fraternity spirit. The result has been a great deal of hard feeling and the gratituous appelation of the combination to boot. My reason for settling the Kappa question a year ago was a belief of the narrrowing tendency of fraternities; but our attitude toward each other and in the university seemed no much more generous if in par we put ourselves in the same level with the other girls that we began to consider the question very seriously. The immediate impulse that brought the thought into prominence was a wish to organize so as to work together as a body to promote a high moral standard, bothe in the building up of character and in our college work among the so called leader in the Hall and on the campus. As we were - simply a set - we felt the necessity of breaking down a spirit of petty criticism and likes and dislike among ourselves and toward people outside, a strong tendency to gossip and the added reputation of snobbishness. Individual effort, whenever there has been any, has not amounted to much and we have thought it not worth while to financially work to-gether to work toward this end. Helen and I talked the fraternity question over with Dr. Jordan and we have his strong encouragement in the organization , and his voluntary offering of assistance. We did this before any definite step was taken. He said that he had found that in any congregation of people their were bound to be sets, and that when they set themselves to working for some good end, it was better than to have no strong bonds and be called by an undignified name.

Of course, I can't go into detail about our constitution but no one is eligible whose work is in any way of secondary importance and who is not of high principle.

There is not half the red tape and formality that there is in other fraternities and not being national, we do not incur the everlasting obligations of national societies. There is to be no such thing as annual dues, "rushing" for freshmen, financial obligations after you leave the university, and rivalry with other fraternities.

The announcement was made in the paper last night just before we went to the cotilion and it was such fun to receive congratulations and see the astonishment of the people on account of our marked reputation as non-fraternity people.