Review of the Current Advocate

In the current number of the Advocate the petirement of the Senior editors from active management is emphasized not only by the announcement of the officers for 1907-08, but also by the fact that an unusually large part of the number has been written by the Senior members of the Board. Mr. Price gives us a story, "Little Brother"; Mr. Henshaw, a burlesque, "The Chambers Maid"; Mr. Mclntyre, a story, "Her House out of Order"; Mr. Stoddard, an essay, "The American Snob"; and Mr. Walsh, a poem, "The Explorer." "Dead Man's Pine," a story, by Mr. K. B. Townsend '08, "Sea-Vision," a poem, by Mr. J. H. Wheelock 08, and two editorials complete the list.

Of the stories, "Little Brother" is undoubtedly the best. Its characters are Harvard men who do not "merely sleep in Cambridge," as a recent reviewer has remarked of most undergraduate heroes of fiction; it has atmosphere and color, and a sufficient plot; and in its fundamental idea that straightforward honesty is the surest means of success it emphasizes one of the most cherished of Harvard ideals. The other two stories are well written, but neither is strikingly original. The greybearded spinner of the impossible story of "Dead Man's Pine" is vividly and convincingly drawn, and the inconsistencies of his yarn are not too much insisted on. "Her House ont of Order" introduces the hackneyed characters of the wealthy and eccentric father, the beautiful daughter, and the rich lover, against the background of a revolving house and an automobile. On the whole, these three contributions serve to confirm the reviewer's belief that undergraduate fiction is most likely to be successful when it concerns itself with undergraduate life.

Mr. Henshaw's burlesque of the modern romantic novel is disappointing. The strokes are too broad, and the humor, at best, problematical. Mr. Stoddard's analysis of the American snob, on the other hand, is distinctly clever, and leaves one wishing that the author had written more at length of his different classes of snobs.

Most difficult of all to estimate is Mr. Wheelock's achievement in "Sea-Visions." The irregular metre and occasional faulty rhymes ("moan" and "gone," "saw" and "door") are disturbing. The overlapping phrases in the first line of each stanza, on the other hand, and the insistent refrain, "O thalassa, thalassa," are decidedly effective, and only fail to be completely successful, perhaps, from the fact that they seem a bit too consciously employed. These, however, are minor faults in a poem which, as a successful attempt to treat a great theme worthily, is decidedly unusual in undergraduate verse.

The editorials discuss the burning question of class buttons and the usurpation of the inflammatory "leader" by the CRIMSON. The suggestion that Freshmen rather than Seniors, should wear class buttons, seems worthy of serious consideration by those who lament the lack of class spirit at Harvard.