Life,' became public. Since 1831 a purely honorary status has existed, and membership is gained only by high scholarship, and given only to honor men usually of graduating classes. (See РНІ ВЕТА КАРРА.) In Yale in 1821 a literary society was founded, called the Chi Delta Theta. Many other literary societies existed at about the same time, in which might be mastered the art of debate, and in which oratory might be indulged in before an audience of college mates. These literary societies served no mean part in college life, and they had faculty approbation and encouragement; but their literary contests and election rivalries destroyed any deep fraternal interest in them. The fraternity system, as it exists to-day, originated at Union College in 1825, when the Kappa Alpha, the first of men's general fraternities, was established. Externally it imitated the Phi Beta Kappa in its secrecy, in its Greek title, and in its limitation of membership to upper-class men. The start of the fraternity system was very simple.. But its novelty was so marked that it at once aroused opposition on the part of the faculty. That attitude has now, however, almost entirely changed. Antagonistic legislation has been greatly modified or else abandoned. Faculty and students dwell in amity, and through the medium of the chapter houses entertain and meet socially their instructors. ExPresident White, of Cornell, President Andrews, of Nebraska University, and other leading educators both East and West, have given public expression to their belief in the utility and value of the college fraternity system. In 1827 we find the Sigma Phi and the Delta Phi established at Union. The system was now well launched, but at one institution alone. In 1831 the Sigma Phi placed the first chapter of any fraternity (omitting B K, now become an honor society) at Hamilton College; and this move probably led to the foundation of Alpha Delta Phi at Hamilton as a competitor in 1832. Alpha Delta Phi started a chapter at Miami University in 1835. Prior to this expansion the fraternity system was confined to two States, New York and Massachusetts, and to the three colleges, Union, Hamilton, and Williams. Miami in 1839 another fraternity, the Beta Theta Pi, was founded. Before 1839 Union College saw one more fraternity established, the Psi Upsilon, in 1833. At Williams was founded the Delta Upsilon in 1834. The year 1840, thirteen years, after the foundation of Kappa Alpha, marks the time when the system could be clearly termed national. Since that period the system has spread, the establishment of fraternities and chapters becoming more frequent until, in 1898, the last year in which a statistical canvass was made, there were approximately 800 chapters in existence. One society, the Delta Upsilon, was in its foundation at least entirely anti-secret. The advent of the fraternity system hurt the prestige of the literary societies through competition for membership and in other ways, and on that account four literary societies met in convention in 1847, and formed the 'Anti-Secret Confederation.' In 1858 a fraternity was effected out of this confederation, changing its status and adopting the monogram badge of Delta Upsilon. In time Delta Upsilon became only nominally nonsecret, to-day ranking practically with other secret fraternities. It is believed that no other non-secret fraternity could be successfully started.

At

WOMEN'S FRATERNITIES. The women's fraternities followed naturally upon the general opening of colleges to co-education, and as young women came to participate more and more in college life, to live in dormitories, and take up college residence. The first of these sororities (as these fraternities are called) was the Kappa Alpha Theta, founded at De Pauw University in 1870. The second, Kappa Kappa Gamma, was founded at Monmouth College in the same year. The Delta Gamma started at the University of Mississippi in 1872, and the Alpha Phi was also installed in 1872 at Syracuse University. The Gamma Phi Beta was launched at Syracuse University in 1874. The Delta Delta Delta was organized at Boston University in 1888, and the Pi Beta Phi (originally I C Sorosis) was founded at Monmouth College in 1867. These societies are practically identical in aims and purposes with the men's fraternities, and in colleges where houses are owned by sororities their general similarity as part of the college organization is marked. It is but thirty-two years since the first sorority was founded. To-day the alumni interest is very strong, and has taken material expression in homes for the sororities at various colleges. and universities.

LOCAL FRATERNITIES. Local fraternities are many and important. Those at Yale University have become the most widely known. They are senior societies, and are three in number: Skull and Bones (1832), Scroll and Key (1841), Wolf's Head (1884). They always elect fifteen men in each year, have no electioneering or pledging, but offer their elections on the campus on a certain date of each year in an impressive manner in the presence of the student body. The system is peculiar, and exists at no other college.

ORGANIZATION, ETC. Prior to 1861, the government of a fraternity was usually retained as a heritage by one chapter, but was modified at times by the several chapters assembled in convention. The year 1870 is generally accepted as the date of a solidified system. After the Civil War the fraternities which had suffered through the enlistment of their members-and in some cases a whole chapter would be enlisted-recov ered activity, and widened their organizations. Then a better government was effected, the governing powers becoming well centralized and stable. In general, the legislative power of fraternities has been vested in an annual convention of delegates, while the administration has been placed upon a few officers there elected.

Social life forms the basic raison d'être of all fraternities. They seek as members those who promise to contribute most to a fellowship where social equality, good scholarship, athletic abilites, and mutual helpfulness are sure to be maintained.

Naturally the contest for members is intense. In general this campaign is the great student feature of the beginning of each college year. Entrance to the fraternity is gained by an initiation, which is widely announced among the members, and usually attracts a large alumni attendance. The chapter house is the most notable part of fraternity life. Statistics show that there were in 1883 but 33 houses owned and occupied by the general fraternities. 1890 there were 70 such houses. But in 1898 425 houses were owned or occupied by the national, local, and women's fraternities of the United

In

States. Of these 134 were owned by the men's fraternities, and 3 owned by the sororities. This great increase is instructive, illustrating the growth of fraternities in a single decade.

The control of the chapter house is vested in a corporation of alumni, but generally subject to the immediate management of the students.

Fraternity members are styled 'active' when in actual college attendance; 'alumni' afterwards. Should they be elected while not undergraduates, they are termed honorary members. To bestow honorary membership is, however, at the present time generally discountenanced. For a member to belong to two fraternities at any one college, or to two at different times in different colleges, is reprehensible and forbidden. Most fraternities publish catalogues, song-books, and magazines. Each fraternity deems a catalogue a necessity. In early days these were mere lists of membership, but now they generally contain addresses of members, the rolls of chapters, and tables of varied statistics, including an important table showing the geographical distribution of chapters and members. Histories have been issued by a few of the fraternities. The song-books have special music in addition to usual college songs, with words written by members. The periodicals are an important factor in the fraternity life. Periodicals are now published by Alpha Tau Omega, Alpha Chi Rho, Beta Theta Pi, Chi Psi, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Delta Tau Delta, Delta Upsilon, Kappa Alpha, Kappa Sigma, Phi Delta Theta, Phi Gamma Delta, Phi Kappa Psi, Phi Kappa Sigma, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Chi, Sigma Nu, Theta Delta Chi. The following women's fraternities publish periodicals: Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Phi, Chi Omega, Delta Delta Delta, Delta Gamma, Kappa Alpha Theta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Pi Beta Phi.

The legal status of fraternities has in several cases been in litigation. In one case, hinging upon the right of a college faculty to debar a stude nt because of his fraternity membership, the Supreme Court of Indiana (1881) decided: "There is no doubt whatever that if an applicant for admission into a public college is otherwise qualified, and there is room to receive him, he cannot be denied admission by reason of membership in a college fraternity." And the Court held further that the requiring by the faculty of a written pledge from the student that he would not join a fraternity, as a condition precedent to his matriculation, implied discrimination against

a class of inhabitants of the State. On the other

hand, it appears to be established that a privately endowed and managed college may exact and enforce such a pledge. In May, 1901, the Arkansas Legislature enacted a law "to prohibit the organization of (and membership in) secret societies in the University of Arkansas, and for other purposes." The legality of this law is to be tested in the courts. One of the most important cases that has been recently decided, at least from a theoretical point of view, and involving the internal organization and powers of a fraternity, was that of the Kappa Kappa Gamma Society versus certain members of its Grand Council. The Grand Council had endeavored to withdraw, without its consent, its Beta Beta chapter, and suits to restrain the Council, through the individual members thereof, were instituted in New York and Massachusetts. The Massachusetts court dismissed the suit on the ground that no property

right was involved; but the New York courts held, on appeal, among other things, that the publication of fraternity suits by the Beta Beta chapter had been proper, inasmuch as the fraternity had virtually compelled it; that rights were affected for which a court of equity could give remedy, and that the fraternity should, on the facts presented, be restrained from withdrawing its chapter. Consult: Baird, American College Fraternities (New York, 1898); Kellogg, College Secret Societies (Chicago, 1874); Aiken, The Secret Society System (New Haven, 1882); Emerson, The College Year-Book and Athletic Record (New York, 1897); Maxwell, Greek Letter Men of New York (New York, 1899); Randolph, "Greek Letter Societies in American Colleges," in New England Magazine, vol. xvii.; "White Fraternities," in Forum, vol. iii. For college societies which are not, strictly speaking, fraternities, see SOCIETIES; COLLEGES, AMERICAN.

FRA'TICELLIANS, or FRATICELLI, fräti-chěl'lě (It., ML. fraticelli, little brethren, diminutive of Lat. frater, brother). A name applied to various more or less strictly defined heretical sects of the Middle Ages, not closely connected either by their beliefs and tendencies or by their time. Their general tendency was one social order, and there is little to distinguish of protest against the existing ecclesiastical and them, to the modern mind, from the Albigenses, Waldenses, Catharini, Beghards, and Brethren of the Free Spirit. The name is found as early as the beginning of the fourteenth century, for example in the chronicle of Giovanni Villani. The origin of the Fraticelli proper has often been connected with the Franciscan Order, or with a particularly strict and rigorist party within it.

This theory is supported by the fact that this name was common in Italy to designate the Friars Minor; but it seems much more likely that, as the immense popularity of the Franciscan Order produced a multitude of unauthorized imitations of it, these innovations in doctrine found ready acceptance in such groups, unrestrained as they were by any close oversight of ecclesiastical authority. As a sect, their origin may, with the greatest probability, be traced to Gherardo Segarelli, a laboring man of Parma, and his disciple, Dolcino of Novara, who organized their followers as an 'apostolic Order,' and made considerable noise in Upper

Italy from 1260 to 1307. They declared poverty an absolutely essential condition of belonging to the true Church, and regarded the existing Church as in a state of apostasy. They had no fixed domiciles, but wandered from place to place. They were not bound by any definite rule, and under Dolcino at least, their career was marked by the free-love' excesses which have formed part of the history of later Anabaptist and communistic associations. The adherents of Segarelli and Dolcino held that all authority was forfeited by sin, and proceeded to fill all the offices which, on their hypothesis, were vacant, electing a certain Majoretti Emperor, a secular priest named Rainaldo Pope, and choosing archbishops of Florence and Venice and a general of the Franciscans who did not even belong to the Order. They were gradually suppressed in the course of the first half of the fifteenth century; John Capistrano was commissioned as inquisitorgeneral in their regard by Martin V., Eugenius

IV., and Nicholas V., and succeeded in completing their eradication. Their last pseudo-pope was burned at Fabriano in 1449, and the sect disappears from history with him. For the sake of clearness, it would be well to restrict the name Fraticelli to the sect above described; but it is sometimes given to the rigorist Franciscans, and to the followers of Michael of Cesena. Consult: Döllinger, Beiträge zur Sektengeschichte des Mittelalters (Munich, 1890); Lea, History of the Inquisition (London, 1894); and see FRANCISCANS.

A

FRATTAMAGGIORE, frät'tå-má-jo'râ. city in South Italy, 8 miles north of Naples, with silk and rope factories and numerous country houses of rich Neapolitans (Map: Italy, D 10). Population, commune, in 1881, 11,000; in 1901, 13,170.

FRAUD. In its broadest sense, any variety of falsehood and artifice by which one deceives another to his legal injury. Courts have been cautious about defining this term, fearing that any precise and complete definition would tend to help crafty and dishonest persons in their attempts to evade the law, and would embarrass the courts themselves, when called upon to deal with new forms of fraud. In the courts of common law the term has borne a narrower and more exact signification than in courts of equity. We will deal with these significations separately. At law, fraud is a false representation of some matter of fact, intended to deceive another and actually deceiving him to his legal injury. All of these elements must concur. There must be a

false representation of fact as distinguished from an expression of opinion. A person who induces another to buy a horse for three hundred dollars, by falsely asserting that it is worth that sum when he knows it is worth but a hundred dollars, acts dishonorably, but does not render himself liable to an action for fraud. He has expressed an opinion, not asserted a matter of fact. Had he declared that the horse could trot a mile in three minutes, or was of a certain strain of blood, or was sound, he would have asserted a fact, which the other party would have had a legal right to rely on. It is to be borne in mind that a false representation may be made by conduct as well as by words; as when a manufacturer skillfully conceals a defect in an article. Simple non-disclosure of the truth, however, does not amount to fraud, for fraud involves the idea of active misconduct. If, however, a party makes a statement which is true as far as it goes, but because of his non-disclosure of other facts the statement conveys a misleading impression and deceives the other party, we have a case of fraudulent concealment.

Not only must the representation be one of fact, but the one making it must know it to be false; or he must make it in reckless disregard of its truth. In other words, there must be a dishonest intention to deceive. Mere negligence in asserting as a fact that which turns out to be false is not fraud, although it may subject the negligent actor to some other liability. Such, at least, is the doctrine which now prevails in England and in most of our States. The third element in an actionable fraud is the deception of the injured party. A manufacturer may patch up a defective article, intending to deceive a purchaser by such concealment of the defect. Still

if a person buys the article without question or examination, his purchase cannot be said to have been induced by the fraudulent conduct of the manufacturer. He was not deceived. He was simply careless.

While the one who complains of a false representation must show that he was actually deceived by it, he need not show that it was the sole or predominant motive to action. It is enough that it materially affected his decision; that it induced him to act as he would not have acted had it not been made. Finally, the deception must result in legal injury to a person, or he cannot insist that he has been defrauded. The law does not give redress for a naked lie. It leaves the punishment of that to another forum.

The legal effect of a fraud is to render every contract or transaction in which it is a material element voidable at the option of the defrauded party. One who has been defrauded into buying and paying for property has the right to rescind the contract, tender back the property, and recover the price. If one has been induced by fraud to sell property on credit, he may retake the property. Rescission is not the only right of the defrauded party, however. He may maintain an action for damages against the wrongdoer.

IN EQUITY. Courts of equity have been accustomed to characterize such fraud as we have been considering as actual fraud, while they as 'constructive designate active misconduct fraud,' or 'conduct amounting to fraud in the contemplation of a court of equity,' or 'fraudu lent in the eyes of this court.' Most of the acts falling within these categories, however, are distinguishable from fraud, in its proper sense; and courts of equity relieve against them, not because they have actually deceived their victim, but because they are repugnant to sound public policy, or because they fall under the head of undue influence (q.v.). In the language of Hardwicke, "Fraud does not here mean deceit or circumvention; it means an unconscientious use of the power arising out of certain circumstances and conditions; and when the relative position of the parties is such as prima facie to raise the presumption of undue influence by one over the other,' the transaction cannot stand, unless the person claiming the benefit of it is able to repel the presumption by contrary evidence, proving it to have been, in point of fact, fair, just, and reasonable." Consult the authorities referred to under CONTRACT; TORT; and also Bigelow, The Law of Fraud on its Evil Side (Boston, 1888); Kerr, Treatise on the Law of Fraud and Mistake (4th ed., London, 1902).

FRAUDS, STATUTE OF. A statute originally passed in the year 1676 (ch. 3 of 29 Charles II.), and taking its name from its purpose, as expressed in the preamble-"the prevention of many fraudulent practices which are commonly endeavored to be upheld by perjury and subornation of perjury." This purpose the framers of the law thought could be accomplished by requiring written evidence, or certain formal acts of the parties, as proof of the more important business transactions. The statutes contain twentyfive sections, the most important of which may be classified as follows: The first three specify the manner in which interests in land may be created or assigned. The fourth describes the evidence requisite to establish certain agreements. The fifth and sixth, as well as sections