of a fishery district. During the herring season (June to September) the population is increased by upwards of 10,000 persons. The fleet numbers more than 700 boats, and the annual value of the catch exceeds £200,000. The harbour, originally constructed as a refuge for British ships of war, is one of the best on the east coast, and has been improved by the widening of the piers and the extension of the breakwaters. It has an area of upwards of eight acres, is easy of access, and affords anchorage for vessels of every size.
FRASERVILLE (formerly Rivière du Loup en Bas), a town
and watering-place in Temiscouata county, Quebec, Canada,
107 m. (by water) north-east of Quebec, on the south shore of
the St Lawrence river, and at the mouth of the Rivière du Loup,
at the junction of the Intercolonial and Temiscouata railways.
It contains a convent, boys’ college, hospital, several mills,
and is a favourite summer resort on account of the angling and
shooting, and the magnificent scenery. Pop. (1901) 4569.
FRATER, Frater House or Fratery, a term in architecture
for the hall where the members of a monastery or friary
met for meals or refreshment. The word is by origin the same as
“refectory.” The older forms, such as freitur, fraytor and the
like, show the word to be an adaptation of the O.Fr. fraitour,
a shortened form of refraitour, from the Med. Lat. refectorium.
The word has been confused with frater, a brother or friar,
and hence sometimes confined in meaning to the dining-hall
of a friary, while “refectory” is used of a monastery.
FRATERNITIES, COLLEGE, a class of student societies
peculiar to the colleges and universities of the United States and
Canada, with certain common characteristics, and mostly
named from two or three letters of the Greek alphabet; hence
they are frequently called “Greek Letter Societies.” They are
organized on the lodge system, and each fraternity comprises
a number of affiliated lodges of which only one of any one
fraternity is connected with the same institution. The lodges,
called “chapters,” in memory of the convocations of monks of
medieval times, are usually designated by Greek letters also.
They are nominally secret, with one exception (Delta Upsilon).
Each chapter admits members from the lowest or freshman
class, and of course loses its members as the students depart
from college, consequently each chapter has in it at the same
time members of all the four college classes and frequently those
pursuing postgraduate studies. Where the attendance at a
college is large the material from which fraternity members
may be drawn is correspondingly abundant, and in some of the
large colleges (e.g. at Cornell University and the University of
Michigan) there are chapters of over twenty fraternities. All
the fraternities aim to be select and to pick their members from
the mass of incoming students. Where, however, the material
to select from is not abundant and the rival fraternities are
numerous, care in selection is impossible, and the chapters at any
one college are apt to secure much the same general type of men.
Many of the fraternities have, however, on account of a persistent
selection of men of about the same tastes at different colleges,
acquired a distinct character and individuality; for instance,
Alpha Delta Phi is literary.
The first of these fraternities was the Phi Beta Kappa, founded at the College of William and Mary at Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1776. It was a little social club of five students: John Heath, Richard Booker, Thomas Smith, Armistead Smith and John Jones. Its badge was a square silver medal displaying the Greek letters of its name and a few symbols. In 1779 it authorized Elisha Parmelee, one of its members, to establish “meetings” or chapters at Yale and Harvard, these chapters being authorized to establish subordinate branches in their respective states. In 1781 the College of William and Mary was closed, its buildings being occupied in turn by the British, French and American troops, and the society ceased to exist. The two branches, however, were established—that at Yale in 1780 and that at Harvard in 1781. Chapters were established at Dartmouth in 1787, at Union in 1817, at Bowdoin in 1824 and at Brown in 1830. This society changed its character in 1826 and became non-secret and purely honorary in character, admitting to membership a certain proportion of the scholars of highest standing in each class (only in classical courses, usually and with few exceptions only in graduating classes). More recent honorary societies of similar character among schools of science and engineering are Sigma Xi and Tau Beta Pi.
In 1825, at Union College, Kappa Alpha was organized, copying in style of badge, membership restrictions and the like, its predecessor. In 1827 two other similar societies, Sigma Phi and Delta Phi, were founded at the same place. In 1831 Sigma Phi placed a branch at Hamilton College and in 1832 Alpha Delta Phi originated there. In 1833 Psi Upsilon, a fourth society, was organized at Union. In 1835 Alpha Delta Phi placed a chapter at Miami University, and in 1839 Beta Theta Pi originated there, and so the system spread. These fraternities, it will be observed, were all undergraduate societies among the male students. In 1910 the total number of men’s general fraternities was 32, with 1068 living chapters, and owning property worth many millions of dollars. In 1864 Theta Xi, the first professional fraternity restricting its membership to students intending to engage in the same profession, was organized. There were in 1910 about 50 of these organizations with some 400 chapters. In addition there are about 100 local societies or chapters acting as independent units. Some of the older of these, such as Kappa Kappa Kappa at Dartmouth, I K A at Trinity, Phi Nu Theta at Wesleyan and Delta Psi at Vermont, are permanent in character, but the majority of them are purely temporary, designed to maintain an organization until the society becomes a chapter of one of the general fraternities. In 1870 the first women’s society or “sorority,” the Kappa Alpha Theta, was organized at De Pauw University. There were in 1910, 17 general sororities with some 300 active chapters.
It is no exaggeration to say that these apparently insignificant organizations of irresponsible students have modified the college life of America and have had a wide influence. Members join in the impressionable years of their youth; they retain for their organizations a peculiar loyalty and affection, and freely contribute with money and influence to their advancement.
Almost universally the members of any particular chapter (or part of them) live together in a lodge or chapter house. The men’s fraternities own hundreds of houses and rent as many more. The fraternities form a little aristocracy within the college community. Sometimes the line of separation is invisible, sometimes sharply marked. Sometimes this condition militates against the college discipline and sometimes it assists it. Conflicts not infrequently occur between the fraternity and non-fraternity element in a college.
It can readily be understood how young men living together in the intimate relationship of daily contact in the same house, having much the same tastes, culture and aspirations would form among themselves enduring friendships. In addition each fraternity has a reputation to maintain, and this engenders an esprit du corps which at times places loyalty to fraternity interests above loyalty to college interest or the real advantage of the individual. At commencements and upon other occasions the former members of the chapters return to their chapter houses and help to foster the pride and loyalty of the undergraduates. The chapter houses are commonly owned by corporations made up of the alumni. This brings the undergraduates into contact with men of mature age and often of national fame, who treat their membership as a serious privilege.
The development of this collegiate aristocracy has led to jealousy and bitter animosity among those not selected for membership. Some of the states, notably South Carolina and Arkansas, have by legislation, either abolished the fraternities at state-controlled institutions or seriously limited the privileges of their members. The constitutionality of such legislation has never been tested. Litigation has occasionally arisen out of attempts on the part of college authorities to prohibit the fraternities at their several institutions. This, it has been held, may lawfully be done at a college maintained by private endowment but not at an institution supported by public funds. In
