More from the Collegian–100 years ago

SOUTHERN GALLANTS, HIST A MOMENT!

Listen, you chivalrous Southern gentleman. Suppose some man should speak uncivilly to your mother or sister—or, perhaps, curse her—what would you do? Would you twiddle your thumbs and be unmoved? Would you respect the fellow? Hardly. Firstly, you’d hunt him up, give him a straight left to the jaw, then, standing over him, you’d call him some names seldom seen in the “Who’s Who” or even in the lowest tribe’s genealogy. You admit that, of course. You admit that a man who speaks disrespectfully to a lady—yes, even to a woman, any woman—is hardly a gentleman. Don’t you?

The telephone in Dormitory 2, Richmond College, is on the same line with the Westhampton College ‘phone. The Richmond College boys pay as much, and no more, for their ‘phone as the girls across the lake. Well, two or three times, perhaps more, a girl has been talking over the ‘phone. A “gentleman” of Richmond College has then asked her, in beautifully-phrased sentences, to hang up, embellishing his request sometimes with the proverbial cuss-word. She was somebody’s sister. Now, if her brother were to seek out the “gentleman,” make him eat dirst, bite off his ear—could he be harshly criticized? Would this brother consider his sister’s “oathy” adviser a gentleman? Think about it. Gentlemen, this must cease. What a name our College will acquire if this continues. If we can’t talk decently over a telephone, let’s either remove the instrument or cut out our larynxes. It is hardly due to a filthy, corrupt mentality, but rather to not thinking. It is best to think what we do, always. The lock-up is full of men who “didn’t think.”

The Collegian, University of Richmond, No. 6, 22 January, 1915.

http://collegian.richmond.edu