The Advocate.

The ninth number of the Advocate is not so good as the last few numbers have been. The editorials are better reading than anything else in the number for they all are good and are with one or two exceptions on pertinent and interesting topics. The stories of the number are on the whole below the average, most of them lack a point and are very weak at the finish. "A Study in Friendship" is undoubtedly the best of them, but even this is not to be compared with the stories of the last number. Two of the "College Kodaks", the second and the third are very good; the first, fourth, and fifth are fair, while the last is weak. The poetry of the number is the poorest part of it.

"On a Portrait by Whistler" by H. U. Greene is perhaps the best thing in this line in the number, though it can hardly be called poetry. "The Song of Man" by H. B. Eddy is certainly not poetry. "Melancholy" by Eugene Warner is rather below this author's former work. The simile in this last, "like an Oriental steeped in oblivious drug, insensate lying" is not pleasing. "On the Progressive Motion of One's Best Foot" by C. M. Flandrau is the cleverest thing in the number. It is written in an entertaining style and consists of some rather cynical advice as to how to make a good impression in society.

The first story of the number. "The Choice" is obscure in its meaning. It is hard to understand the feelings of the hero and harder still to grasp the situation. "A Character Sketch" is not a very deep study, but merely an account of the doings of a kleptomaniac. "The Reward of Indolence" is poor. The author's strongest point is in his descriptions which are not above the average. "Blackberries" by Kenneth Brown is pleasant reading though it tells no story and has little point.