The Advocate.

Of the stories in the last Advocate, which made its appearance yesterday, "The Garden of Sleep," by C. M. Flandrau, is decidedly the best, and it is the best, too, in spite of the fact that it is the most pretentious. The story is of an invalid, - a young man, - who, with his friend and his mother, is spending the winter in a dahabeha on the Nile, and of his death there. The sleepy, sultry atmosphere of the scene is admirably caught, while the interest is well sustained throughout. The words too are well chosen and descriptive.

"At the Dime Museum," by Hallowell Abbott, is remarkably sympathetic, and, as it does not pretend to be anything more than a sketch, this quality, together with its simplicity of style, makes it very readable.

"From Jest to Earnest" is an absurdity after Stockton's style, though it lacks the plausibility with which that master of absurdities always clothes his impossible imaginations. A little elaboration here and there, especially of the passage that deals with the proposals, would not have been amiss.

About "Bob's Particular Friend, Miss Shepard" we are rather at loss what to say. The story seemed interesting enough as it progressed, and parts of it, - the paragraph describing the "tea," for instance, were delightfully descriptive, yet the general impression left by the story was unsatisfactory. The trouble seems to be that the style is a little incoherent; one is not always sure what the writer is trying to express, so that the sequence of thought is not every where apparent.

"Sophy's Sermon" is a slight little thing, barely as long as the first "Kodak" of the number, but Sophy is full of fire, and Johnny's abuse of the king's English is very true to life.

For this issue of the Advocate the name "College Kodaks" might have been changed to "Annex Dailies," for we are treated to some of the productions of our sister students. The first is a little long and rambling for a Kodak, but it is certainly clever. The second, though it is on the everlasting small boy, is "easily queen." The third is decidedly the most feminine of the batch, and one feels sure that it is not a man's production even before one finds that the tall and stately hero is accused of using "deuced" in his thought.

"The Antiquary. A Fragment," by George Griswold, 2d, is the longest poem in the number, and is decidedly telling. The blank verse is musical, and the succession of metaphors is very well sustained, - a difficult feat.

"Menoetes," a sonnet, by E. A. Robinson, is not so successful, though it contains good lines.

Under "Topics of the Day" the need of a course for the study of current events is set forth. The author takes a long time in working up to his subject, but when he does get to it he shows very forcibly what the advantages of such a course would be. What its effect on the higher powers will be, remains to be seen.

Of the editorials, the most important is the one. which, apropos of the system proposed for Chicago University, suggests the advisability of condensing the work of some of our longer courses into a shorter time, so that to prevent some of "the reckless scattering of energy which is one of the noticeable things in our present system." It is worth the consideration of college men who are interested in this subject to think the matter over carefully, and then, if they think it worth while, to agitate it energetically.