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228
THE PLASTIC AGE

sufficiently interested in his studies to like them for their own sake.

A change had come over the campus. It was in¬ explicable but highly significant. There had been evidences of it the year before, but now it became so evident that even some of the members of the faculty were aware of it. Intolerance seemed to be dying, and the word “wet” was heard less often. The undergraduates were forsaking their old gods. The wave of materialism was swept back by an inrushing tide of idealism. Students suddenly ceased to concentrate in economics and filled the English and philosophy classes to overflowing.

No one was able really to explain the causes for the change, but it was there and welcome. The “Sanford Literary Magazine,” which had been slowly perishing for several years, became almost as popular as the “Cap and Bells,” the comic maga¬ zine, which coined money by publishing risque jokes and pictures of slightly dressed women. A poetry magazine daringly made its appearance on the campus and, to the surprise of its editors, was re¬ ceived so cordially that they were able to pay the printer’s bill.

It became the fashion to read. Instructors in English were continually being asked what the best new books were or if such and such a book was all that it was “cracked up to be.” If the instructor