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Caption: Book - History of the University (Nevins)
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130 YEARS OF DEPRESSION Chi was conferred on all Tautogs. As the members had asked Dr. Peabody whether they fell under the antifraternity ruling, and he had assured them that they did not, they had no qualms of conscience. New blood was kept constantly running through the Tautological club. Regular meetings were held, and made known to the public through the subsequent distribution of programs. These called up a vision of Pickwick, Artemus Ward, Confucius, Lo, the poor Indian, Baron Munchausen, Shakespeare, Don Quixote, Dr. Johnson, Mohammed, and Victor Hugo feasting on a long list of delicacies, and vying in nonsensical discourse. In reality, the fraternity men were consuming bread, ,cheese, and beer, and singing "Michael Roy" at the tops of their voices. In 1885 the council of Sigma Chi addressed a letter to the Trustees, with eight reasons why the prohibition of three years before should be dropped##A petition was also circulated with some success among the students, while Walter L. Fisher, later Secretary of the Interior, appeared before the Board in behalf of fraternities. But many of the students were opposed to the movement—the Ulini condemned it strongly—and Peabody remained very hostile, so that the Trustees killed it in committee with asperity. By some arguments of the national council they were much offended. Sigma Chi had referred to its belief that a former secret society had continued a desultory existence at Illinois, and had somehow conveyed an insinuation that the Sigma Chi authorities encouraged the violation of student pledges by accepting those who had broken them. They had further offered the most impolitic threat that if defied they would use their influence with the Legislature to defeat the University appropriations.
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