HASTY CRITICISM.

THE irritable individual who has written an article in a recent Advocate on the subject of room-rents has now reappeared in an offensive and personal attack on my answer to his complaints. As he has falsified my expressions, and purposely misconstrued my whole article, I think it proper to call attention to the fact in self-defence.

As to my article being in "bad taste" and "snobbish," these expressions are wholly out of place, and are merely an indication of the bad-tempered manner in which the writer has taken my remarks. My opinions may be wrong, but they certainly were not expressed in a manner to justify such criticism. We now find the following untrue sentence: "The writer compares the character of our rooms with those at Yale and Tufts in a spirit that is as insulting to them as it is disgraceful to himself."

I said that our rooms were worth more than those at Tufts. Why? Because the situation of Tufts College is notoriously one of the most dreary and exposed of any that could be found in the State. I said that our rooms were preferable to those at Yale, because there the old buildings were musty and shabby, and in the new ones steam-pipes were substituted for open hearths, which is a disadvantage that all Harvard students will appreciate. No may I ask what there is in these opinions that is "insulting" to Yale and Tufts, or "disgraceful" to myself? Again we have an untrue statement: "He says that because we pay over twice as much, on an average, for our rooms as they do at Yale, our rooms are therefore twice as good as those at Yale," In my article therefore is nothing that could even be misunderstood for such a remark. I am sorry to be obliged to say that the Advocate writer, in attributing the above words to me, has seriously compromised his reputation for veracity.

I think that I have written sufficient to show the character of this article, and do not care to pursue the subject further. In his desire to say something disagreeable the writer has overstepped all bounds of truth and propriety. It is to be hoped for his own credit that the next time he is troubled with a bilious turn he will refrain from using his pen, and in conclusion I may remind him of the appropriate proverb, "A little pot boils over easily."

B. T.