From the Archives
A brief age of chivalry

September 5, 2008

U of S Archives, Spectrum, 1921.

By Patrick Hayes, U of S Archives

This issue’s image comes from the 1921 U of S student yearbook, the Spectrum. Ye Knights of Peace and Piety, or the Men’s House Committee, was a self-selected group of senior students living in residence. Below is an excerpt from the year-end description of their deeds.

“The eyes of the University will turn with inestimable admiration to these noble knights of peace and piety, who have so courageously and gallantly faced the perils of the underworld of the residences, guarding freshmen and freshettes from the most hideous atrocities of those antediluvian trodlodytes, known as “Sophs” and “Juniors”. Yea, verily, countless have been those saved from the deep dark abyss of despair, due solely to the keen and never sleeping eye of these heroic knights. Thus, spake the noble Barney, “Fellow Lords, we have played the game: we had lit the candle in residences, as by the Grace of God, shall never be put out. Farewell, Brethren, to you, from parting hands we throw the torch, Be yours to hold it high.”

The torch was lit and tossed but no one picked it up. The order died after a single year. The age of chivalry at the U of S was a brief one.