PLAIN FACTS.

OF the crew who rowed in the Springfield and Saratoga races last summer there are but two now working. Of the last Freshman crew the captain alone has at this time definitely decided to row. Of the other candidates, two only ever rowed in a shell race, and this a Freshman race, two years ago. Moreover, the majority are under-sized men. The most superhuman captain, with such material to sustain him, could not make our chances brilliant.

At other colleges the interest in boating seems constantly increasing, and manifests itself in the most substantial form by offering an abundance of large, strong men as candidates for seats in the University boat. A place on the crew is an honor emulously sought for, and relinquished only with a struggle. At Yale, Captain Cook had constantly at his elbow a force of strong, trained men, waiting and working for a chance. Year after year, through success and defeat, the same men stuck by him; and no Harvard man will deny that they were well rewarded, last June, for their faithfulness. With us, a place is won on the crew to satisfy personal ambition; and when all have seen that it was once won, and can be retained at the holder's option, it is calmly relinquished, and the ex-varsity man rests complacently on his honors; but a place on the crews which we have turned out for the past four years is no such honor as these men seem to think they have made it.

That a crew can win the first position only by successive years of working together, the Yale and Cornell crews have plainly shown. For a man to row one year and then, when just brought to some excellence as an oarsman and prepared to be of value, for him to desert, is a culpable betrayal of his crew and of his college. It may be argued that a man has a perfect right to row or not; and so he has; but not to stop rowing when he has once commenced. His personality is merged in the crew, - a university institution. Having once become a part of this institution, while it is in his power to aid to victory, he has no right to withdraw; and this is what men ought to feel when they become candidates.

The crew's drawbacks, however, are not confined to the desertion of the old members. There is great difficulty in finding suitable material to pick from. The large, strong, temperate men in college, who must form the backbone of a successful crew, refuse, almost to a man, to row. They invent countless trivial excuses lest they be disturbed from their peaceful somnolence and made useful to themselves and to Harvard. There does not seem to be a spark of enthusiasm where it can do any real good. Not a single volunteer worthy of present consideration has presented himself. Now, we can never hope to win a race while we go on in this way. It is impossible to get up a decent crew while no one cares to try for it. The present captain is forced to spend most of his time in urging men to join who ought to have volunteered long since, and be now working for old Harvard with might and main. The captain is out daily with a scratch crew, good, bad, and indifferent, and is working hard with such stuff as he can get. The president of the H. U. B. C. and others have told us what a tremendous enthusiasm there is among us; but it is about time that the students should know how the matter stands, and should see to it themselves that the farce of last year is not repeated.