AT
GOOD OLD SIWASH
BY GEORGE FITCH
ILLUSTRATED
BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1916
Copyright, 1910, 1911,
By the Curtis Publishing Company.
Copyright, 1911,
By Little, Brown, and Company.
All rights reserved
Printers
S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, U.S.A.
Twenty-five yards with four Muggledorfer men hanging onhis legsFrontispiece. Page 19
AT GOOD OLD SIWASH
PREFACE
Little did I think, during the countless occasions on which I haveskipped blithely over the preface of a book in order to plunge into theplot, that I should be called upon to write a preface myself some day.And little have I realized until just now the extreme importance to theauthor of having his preface read.
I want this preface to be read, though I have an uneasy premonition thatit is going to be skipped as joyously as ever I skipped a prefacemyself. I want the reader to toil through my preface in order to savehim the task of trying to follow a plot through this book. For if heattempts to do this he will most certainly dislocate something abouthimself very seriously. I have found it impossible, in writing ofcollege days which are just one deep-laid scheme after another, toconfine myself to one plot. How could I describe in one plot the life ofthe student who carries out an average of three plots a day? It isunreasonable. So I have done the next best thing. There is a plot inevery chapter. This requires the use of upwards of a dozen villains, analmost equal number of heroes, and a whole bouquet of heroines. But Ido not begrudge this extravagance. It is necessary, and that settles it.
Then, again, I want to answer in this preface a number of questions byreaders who kindly consented to become interested in the stories whenthey appeared in the Saturday Evening Post. Siwash isn't Michigan indisguise. It isn't Kansas. It isn't Knox. It isn't Minnesota. It isn'tTuskegee, Texas, or Tufts. It is just Siwash College. I built it myselfwith a typewriter out of memories, legends, and contributed tales from ascore of colleges. I have tried to locate it myself a dozen times, but Ican't. I have tried to place my thumb on it firmly and say, "There, darnyou, stay put." But no halfback was ever so elusive as this infernalcollege. Just as I have it definitely located on the Knox Collegecampus, which I myself once infested, I look up to find it on the Kansasprairies. I surround it with infinite caution and attempt to nail itdown there. Instead, I find it in Minnesota with a strong Norwegianaccent running through the course of study. Worse than that, I oftenfind it in two or three places at once. It is harder to corner than aflea. I never saw such a peripatetic school.
That is only the least of my troubles, too. The college itself is nevertwice the same. Sometimes I am amazed at its size and perfection, by thegrandeur of its gymnasium and the colossal lines of its stadium. But atother times I cannot find the stadium at all, and the gymnasium hasshrunk