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Varsity Suits

Thoroughbreds! You can see they are by the way they look and fit. Coats are broad shouldered and broad chested; wide, close-fitting collars and long, wide lapels cut low to show the waistcoat; semi-fitted back, deep vented; trousers generously peg-top.

Shown here in the new gray patterns, fancy tweeds, and plain gray, blue and black; single and double-breasted models in all sizes.

Hand-tailored, $15 to $25

College men particular about their haberdashery will find we've paid particular attention to collecting the bright particular stars of the shirt, neckwear and hosiery world for their enjoyment. Everything in really smart wears, from hat to shoes.

MEIGS & CO
CO. Head-to-Foot Clothiers
93-95-97 CHURCH STREET

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"MUCKERS"-SOMETHING DEFINITIVE.

"MUCKER" is a man who is afraid to lose. He does not hate to lose; that is natural and necessary—for a gentleman. But he fears to lose! It is in crises that cap the very progress of our life that we see before us, in unmistakable lines, the difference between a "mucker" and a gentleman. In these crucial moments the gentleman bears himself with equanimity, prepared to win gracefully or to lose with equal grace. Not so the mucker! His outward appearances reveal the agitation within, for he fears to lose, and therefore, prey to his fear, is not a good loser, nor yet—a good winner. Believe me no mucker is a gentleman.

And among us there are gentlemen, the backbone of the University, but just so surely there are muckers, her incubus and her shame!-Otherwise this leader would not have been written.-The "mucker" is no alien, his ways are often as subtle and as ingratiating as those of any Tartuffe. Against the far-off sky line a noble castle looms up, all turrets, all beauty. Yet it would be unusual if no note in the color 36

VOL. LXXI.

scheme sounded discord, or if on further approach we should find no spot on this beautiful edifice, that in its very contrast to the splendor against which it stands, is unsightly. Thus it is that we have "muckers" in our midst, not comprising in themselves a community, but rather an innegligible factor in that community of draw-backs, narrownesses and injustices that per se enhance the greatness of our University.

The phases of the "mucker" are very numerous—not so numerous as to daunt our optimism, nor so few as to escape our condemnation, nor to meet our disregard. The "mucker" is thin-skinned, and once scratch that skin and the blood comes, not to clot like that of a gentleman, but to poison by its very weakness. Located as we are in the very heart of the city, a city whose heart impulses are often determined by our attitude, the "mucker" stands alone as the inconsiderate, yet all-too-willing partaker of this city's advantages. Thoughtlessness is excusable, but not wantonness! Why certain individuals consider the right of way on the crowded streets theirs, why the same individuals have no consideration for either man or woman in boarding trains, but assert themselves in a rude manner, this must be answered. It is that these few are "muckers." They lack the regard for other people's privileges that to some is inborn. They hold as intenable the authority of moderation. They are the first to shirk this authority. All this because they are not gentlemen. gentleman's standard of action is fixed; the "mucker's" standard varies inconsistently and roughly from the sane mean and is a vagrant system of rules defiant to all rights. The proper place for "picking holes" is at the Field, not where the crowd is thickest and where courtesy is most imperative. Whence is this attitude of some few towards New Haven? Let me repeat. A “mucker" is not a gentle

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Truly, our University is never so publicly displayed in its entirety as in its athletics! It has been said a leader is not to be a sermon. This leader is no sermon; it is a criticism

Exchange

Yale University

Library JAN 5 '40 April 1906]

"Muckers"-Something Definitive.

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that has as its purpose the welfare of the University. Initial appearances, how much weight they carry! Some universities have in every instance failed to make a good public appearance. Oftentimes their learning is of the highest, their world influence of the widest. There has never been any such danger at Yale, powerful and far-reaching as is her name. The "muckers" among us, however, detract from our public appearance, "muckers" who at football games sit in the grand-stands, and at baseball games sit in the bleachers. And this is the relation of the "mucker" to athletics. Remember the scene that is enacted in a fierce game when the score is close and our team, with the ball in its possession, is near to our side-lines. An uplifted hand seen all over the field and our stands are silent in suspense. The signals ring cold and clear.-But let the opposing team hold the same position, a short distance from our goal. In vain our men attempt to quiet the stir and hum arising from the excited onlookers. One play and the stands are a howling mass, among which some few are conspicuous. Confusion and excitement know no bounds. But soon there is order. A strong picture has been blazed upon our minds, a complicate study of human passions. Now it is a baseball game. pitcher is up. The suspense becomes oppressive, waiting to be broken even as quickly as when a dangerous chemical bursts into explosion. But the opposing pitcher is in the same position, for the score is very close. Note his reception. No words from the diamond can silence the stamping and banging that tries the ablest pitcher's "nerve." Obviously this is not right. Again the "muckers" are to blame. There are no "muckers" on the field. In the stand or bleachers there are some who are nervously incapable of bearing in quiet, the strain. These never make a show of themselves; they are not culpable. Nor is the crowd to blame. In that overcharged atmosphere it must needs follow the initial impulses, even as in the theatre, a whole audience answers to the "professional clapper." But the clappers are to blame, the few that make a display of themselves, who may not

Our

await the crisis in equanimity and this because they are afraid to lose. This it is to have "muckers" among us. You will say "but this will always be so." Alas, to a certain degree this will always be so. There are always those who throw off the veneer of a gentleman, along with their composure, and furnish the initial impulses that sway the crowd. For such a public performance the "muckers" are to blame. They alone create the bad impression, they alone make themselves conspicuous. This "fear to lose" is as dreadful as the many aspects of fear that work insidiously towards ruin. Yet it will "always be so," but in a far limited degree, if we suppress the initial disturbers, they who by their dramatic actions do not spoil because they cannot, but rather taint the true spirit of athletics.

And in the University herself! The disturbing element, in lectures, in class-room and in chapel must be attributed to the "mucker.” When a lecture drags, the lecturer is insulted, not harshly, but in that mean way that invariably fosters resentment. Resentment, will any one underrate its danger! Who will say "He should have known better. He knew who his audience was. He should have amused us." If we may not be interested we can at least be polite. Nor are we untrue to ourselves when, instead of rustling in our seats, coughing or, childlike, dropping our pencils, we preserve the outward attention requisite of a host. Lecturers, preachers, instructors, they are our guests. We are not philistines, nor ingrates; but hosts. The rights of a guest, the duties of a host were inviolable long before the Christian era, and our civilization is not decadent. A host is a gentleman. I think you will understand when I say that a "mucker" is not a gentleman.

And now we have seen "muckerism" in its relation to New Haven, to the University, and to athletics. The "mucker" has stood forth in a two-fold capacity; first, in his nongentlemanliness, second, in his fear to lose. There will be those who say "You have drawn the 'mucker' in lines much too broad. You have not given us the representative

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