Prospectus

The football season is over down at Princeton and the fellows have set aside their childish things. The black and orange pennants are safely tacked over the mantle, the silver steins glisten in a row, and lights burn late as the chill dusk gathers in across the rolling lawns. Happy thoughts of golden autumn weekends linger, but the mood is one of manly anticipation: Bicker, once again, draws high.

Bicker, like the British constitution, is a system of values developed over the years by the concentrated effort of some of our finest minds. Though Bicker's history scarcely ranks with Britain's in terms of length, the two stand together as monuments of principle. No less resolute than Mr. Churchill in 1940, the boys of Bicker know full well the consequence of yielding to that which is foreign. If Mr. Churchill was busy thwarting the idea of a Master Race, and if the Bicker boys now seem intent on preserving it, no matter; it is a question of principle.

The principle on which Princeton so bravely stands each year is the principle that "a guy has a right to choose the guys he wants to juice with, by Christ." Sometimes, however, there are people who don't, for various reasons, make the grade. Last year these unfortunates went to Prospect Club, a cooperative eating society of relatively minor social status. This year, even Prospect has decided to be more exclusive. It will take anybody, but it won't take them at the last minute, as it did previously.

Prospect's decision has forced the hands of the happier clubs who last year sent their rejects--the 100 per centers--down the street and away. So the big boys have decided to redefine "100 per cent," a term which covered the defects of snobbiness by pretending that everybody got into a club.

The redefining of anything quite as absolute as "100 per cent" will require a semantic and mathematical wizardry which only a Princeton Einstein could manage. Still, we have faith in the Inter-Club Council's ability to turn a 95 per cent Bicker into a 100 per cent Bicker--the difficult they can do immediately, the impossible takes a little longer.