The March Monthly.

The March Monthly is, in the timeliness and merit of its articles and editorial, one of the best numbers that has appeared this year. In the well-proportioned breadth of its contents, also, it is calculated to please undergraduate readers. Beginning with a careful article on "The Gay Lord Quex"--which has recently been so prominent about here--it proceeds with a lively newspaper story, a capital appreciation of Guy de Maupassant, and one of the most amusing and well-told hunting stories that has recently appeared in undergraduate fiction. These contributed articles, together with the pertinent editorial on the wearing of caps and gowns, realize more truly the aims of the Monthly than some of the numbers that have gone before have done.

The first article, "Mr. Pinero and. "The Gay Lord Quex'", by J.P. White, is a thoroughly adequate narrative of Mr. Pinero's progress as a dramatist and a carefully considered criticism of "The Gay Lord Quex." To those who saw and enjoyed the play this winter, the article serves the useful purpose of fixing "The Gay Lord Quex" in the literary drama and of showing its close relation to the work of other dramatists and novelists.

"The Mill of Time," by G. H. M., narrowly misses being a very successful story. It relates the disillusioning experience of a "cub" reporter on a great daily; and these experiences are racily told in an account crammed with newspaper incident. This account, however, is rather arbitrarily placed between two quite different scenes, one in a club and the other with the boy's father. The relation between the three episodes might more plainly be shown; or else, the three episodes might be made more distinct, thus making of the story three character-sketches, as the writer evidently intended.

"Guy de Maupassant and His Work," by W. G., is a light, well-written appreciation. The writer pleasingly discusses Maupassant's gifts, training and talents, and passes a safe, if not very exhaustive, judgment on Maupassant's philosophy. The Monthly might do well to give more room, along with its deeper and more analytic criticism, to such light, well-phrased and purely appreciative essays.

The rollicking humor of "An Elk Hunt in Wyoming," by Henry Lyman, is the most delightful trait of a very interesting narrative. The incident by itself is very funny; and the sly wit with which it is told makes it well-nigh irresistible.

The verse of the number is unusually good: the fragment by C. M. Stearns is finely imaginative; and "Sea Burial," by H.W. Holmes is remarkable for its deep feeling and sure sense for phrasing.

The editorial takes rather a desponding view of the decision of the Senior class to wear caps and gowns: "Unless every Senior wears the cap and gown, the main sentimental purpose of the scheme will certainly be lost,--namely, the bringing of Seniors into close relations with each other;" and, in conclusion, it expresses the fear that "it is highly improbable that these distinctions, which have no tradition behind them, will bring together classes which the natural evolution of the University is irresistibly disuniting."