COMPARATIVE RECORDS.

Since the Yale News, yielding to the dictates of its rabid fancy, has of late been seeking to belittle Harvard's record in athletics in general, it may be in order to bring forward a few facts, obtained by a cursory glance over past college affairs. In making comparisons we have taken the past seven years as our basis, thus giving to Yale all the advantage, since prior to this period Harvard was overwhelmingly victorious over Yale in every branch of athletics.

In foot-ball Yale's record is unmistakably superior to Harvard's, standing five games to one draw, there being no game in 1877. In 1876 the score was one goal to two touchdowns, showing that the victory was won by some accidental superiority in kicking, and not by the general excellence of the team. In 1878 the score was one goal to nothing; in 1880, a goal and a touchdown to nothing; in 1881 Yale won with no score, Harvard making four safety touchdowns, and in 1882 Yale won by her largest score, one goal and three touchdowns. Thus, although we have won no victory in foot-ball since 1876, yet our record, considering the division of our athletic interests, is nothing to be ashamed of. Yale has never beaten us as badly as Harvard defeated her in 1875, when the score was four goals and two touchdowns for Harvard to nothing for Yale. So, including 1875 in our record, which is only counting seven years of games, the score stands even-four goals and four touchdowns for either side.

In base-ball the record is far different. Out of the twenty-four games played in the last seven years, Harvard has won thirteen, while Yale has been victorious in eleven. Harvard has won four series, Yale one, with two ties. In 1881 the tie could not be played off, owing to some disagreement with regard to the date. In 1882 a date was arranged for a deciding game, but Yale, knowing they had won the championship without showing a superiority over at least two teams, backed squarely out of the game. They claimed that they could not hold their nine together, but the fact that they played a game with a professional nine afterward, shows where the pinch came. This short account of the record will serve to show Harvard's superiority in base-ball.

To turn to boating affairs, we find that since 1875 Harvard has won four out of the seven four-mile eight-oared races; that in 1879 Yale met with the worst defeat ever known in the history of rowing. As Yale crews have always been superior to Harvard crews in weight, and sometimes in strength, the above record goes to show the superiority of Harvard's management and skill.

Thus, in the three sports upon which Yale concentrates all her energy and forces, we see her superiority in one counterbalanced by Harvard's supremacy in the two others. But Harvard can do other things as well. For the past three years we have held the Mott Haven cup; since the advent of lacrosse we have never been beaten at that game, and we now hold the championship of the United States. In these two sports Yale has never made a showing. As to best college records in general athletics, Yale holds two, while Harvard comes to the front with five.

The above are the facts upon which the News bases its remarks. We have taken seven years as the basis of comparison, as this was the period chosen by the News itself. The utter want of foundation for the News' article is thus seen to be on a par with the most of its assertions about Harvard. In addition to the testimony of these facts and records, we all know by what questionable means and unfair methods Yale obtains her superiority in the one sport in which she does excel.

M.