The New Advocate.

The new number of the Advocate which is issued to-day is one of the best of the year. The editorials are smoothly written, although they lack some of the vigor usually found in the editorials of the paper. The first article is "A Story of the South," a piece of composition of a high order. The climax of the story is very thrilling and the incidental dissertation of Mexican scenes are realistic. "The Swiss Yankee" is the title of an admirable bit of descriptive writing. The Swiss landscape in all its peacefulness and silent grandeur seems lying stretched out before the reader, while the account of the little guide has in it a vein of pathos which adds greatly to the sketch. The fate of an artist who fell in love with a ghostly maiden is told in "A New England Legend." It is very concisely written and does not lack interest. "Topics of the Day" is a new departure in the Advocate. It is not to appear in every number; but it is to be devoted to live subjects of discussion among the students. The department in the present number is filled by a soliloquy about snobs as seen from a snob's point of view. There is a deep truth in what is said, and we do not remember ever having seen it expressed so forcibly as it is here.

We are rather at a loss to account for the appearance in the Advocate of such a nondescript piece of writing as the lines entitled "A Vapid Vaporing." We have thought that none but articles which had some claim to literary merit were published in this paper, but here we find something that is entirely out of place. The high tone of the other articles is lowered by the presence of these verses, which, if they were in their proper place, might call for our approval. Perhaps the best thing in the present number is the stanza, "A Memory: to Nightfall." It is a most delicate and pure composition. We feel that it has the inspiration of true poetry. The verses "But yesterday, I thought of Spring," by the same writer, are good, but they have not the strong originality that marks the other contribution. Under the head of correspondence is published a manly letter from the pen of "Tenebo." The writer believes that something more than success in athletics should be the test of popularity among students. We have no doubt that the sentiments. expressed in the letter will have the sympathy of a large number of men at Harvard.