ENVIOUS HARVARD.

A new institution rejoicing in the name "college" has been heard from. We refer to a college bearing the romantic name of Tufts, which, we learn, is situated somewhere in the outskirts of Boston. In our edition of last Tuesday we referred to a small band of men, presumably students, who were in the habit of amusing the public every week by walking down Washington street wearing the mortar-board, an English custom aped by some of our smaller American colleges, presumably for the purpose of giving them a somewhat "Englishy" look. A Tufts correspondent of the Boston Post, yesterday, gave his college away by fathering these mortarboards. The representative of this distinguished institution gives vent to his wounded feelings in the following letter to the Post, which we republish in full, for the amusement of our readers:

"I noticed in your edition of the 18th inst., an extract from one of the Harvard publications, referring to the wearing of Oxford caps by Tufts students. The anxiety of the writer for the good name of Harvard is praiseworthy. It would have been well if H. U. students in times past had had a like regard for it. The disgraceful performances in Boston theatres, and other similar affairs, in which Cambridge students have played a conspicuous part, have rendered it unnecessary and almost impossible, for Tufts students, or any body else, to sully that "good name," which has been so degraded. Two very plausible reasons for this outburst of the Harvard editor have been suggested. One is, that Tufts has anticipated Harvard in the adoption of the Oxford cap, a thing which the university cannot brook; the other, that the novelty of the Oxford cap withdraws public gaze from the particularly ungainly gait of the Harvard student. A word of consolation may be offered. No Oxford cap can long rival, in the public eye, the ungraceful amble. In all probability the students of Tufts will continue to wear their Oxford caps wherever they see fit."

J. C. '83.Jan. 19, 1882.