In addition to the corps laws, there are some corps usages which have the force of laws.
Perhaps the president of a corps notices that one of the
membership who is no longer an exempt—that is a
freshman—has remained a sophomore some little time without volunteering
to fight; some day, the president, instead of calling
for volunteers, will APPOINT this sophomore to measure
swords with a student of another corps; he is free
to decline—everybody says so—there is no compulsion.
This is all true—but I have not heard of any student
who DID decline; to decline and still remain in the corps
would make him unpleasantly conspicuous, and properly so,
since he knew, when he joined, that his main business,
as a member, would be to fight. No, there is no law
against declining—except the law of custom, which is
confessedly stronger than written law, everywhere.
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