Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/146

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"cabaret stuff" or a few moving pictures. If a class party is planned in the armory some bright youth with an original mind at once suggests that the management brings over an act from the local vaudeville theatre to entertain the guests while they are eating. Class smokers and house dances and formal parties are not infrequently given a touch of spice by introducing, when interest wanes, a few snappy stunts from the local vaudeville stage or a reel of two of moving pictures. We are going vaudeville mad it seems to me and are growing to think only in moving pictures. The University of Illinois has recently tried in some small measure to inhibit this tendency by stipulating in a number of instances when a request for a student gathering or a class party is granted that such entertainment as might be furnished should come from the members of the class or organization giving the function and not from the local vaudeville stage.

"But what can a fellow do?" an undergraduate interrogated not long ago when I protested against this debauchery in vaudeville. "One must have some recreation; he can't study all the time." I grant this willingly; but there are good plays occasionally coming to town, and though they cost more than the commonplace and often vulgar stuff which is daily presented to the public, it is