Secret Societies Alive At Yale; Still Attract Campus BMOCs

The old Yale still lives on in some undergraduates. Nathaniel Cartmell, a Yale senior, will traipee up to Cambridge today after escorting an Andover classmate's sister at a coming out party in New York over Thanksgiving.

Cartmell is captain of the Yale swimming team. His father, who also went to Andover and Yale, used to show up at Andover swimming meets in an enormous blue overcoat, armed with a loud voice and a stop watch.

Cartmell is a member of a Yale secret society. Election to a secret society isn't considered to be the ultimate reward for the most meritorious members of the senior call any more, but they still do attract some of Yale's BMOCs. Bob Purschel, the captain of the Yale football team, and All-American halfback Dick Jouron are in Cartmell's society. Woll's Head.

The Society's building, a dark vaulted monstrosity which contains, among other things, an Egyptian mummy, three old ears that have propelled Yale crews post Harvard in years past, and a color T.V., was built by Edward Herknoss, who is responsible for more collegiate stone-and-brick (including Yale's Colleges and Harvard's Houses) than any other generous fat cat in history. "He wanted it to be bigger than Skull and Bones," explained Cartmell.

Cartmell isn't entirely old school. He dropped out of Fence Club, Yale's preppiest fraternity ("too artificial," he explained). The sparsely-filled bookshelves in his Pierson College room include Future Shock as well as Stever at Yale.

Cartmell's extracurricular activities don't leave much time for his academic career. Resting under a letter from a Smith girl and The Times Sunday sports page is Cartmell's latest exam book from Be 38. A "D" graces the cover. Most--undergraduates take five courses for their first three years and only four in their senior year. Do to extenuating circumstances, Cartmell has to take six courses his last year. "There was a doan here a couple of years ago," said one of Cartmell's friends, "who didn't see eye-to-eye with Cartmell's academic program. It was a race to see who would leave first, the doan or Cartmell. Fortunately for Cartmell, the doan retired."