Illustrated is Valuable Diary

The new board of the Illustrated sets a standard for the magazine, which will, if adhered to, justify the position of growing importance which it is assuming in the University world. Their aim is that a Senior, leaving Cambridge with the volumes of his four years, "will have with him a pictorial diary omitting none of the important events of general interest which have happened during his undergraduate days." This describes to a nicety the field which the Illustrated occupies, and should seek to fill more and more. The current number, which is in a general way a spring athletic number, is put together with good illustrations--those on the cover, showing four important spring sports, being particularly adapted to the subject. The cuts illustrating the articles on sailing canoes are interesting and unusual, and the pictures from Stanford University bear the distinction of being the first cuts exchanged across the continent by college papers.

Dr. Berle advocates a state university for Massachusetts, dealing wholly with one side of a question which has been agitated a great deal lately. This university, be claims, would not merely duplicate what is now in existence, but would be "the old university made over, inspired with the ideal of serving all the people, and vitalized by the service itself." The impression conveyed seems to be that our old universities, at best copies of the European ones, have hardened into a traditional and unpractical from, whereby they benefit the few and disregard the many; that those who come to them in a search for culture are being "suckled in a creed outworn." The field which the state institution would fill is not clearly stated, and it hardly behooves anyone to form an opinion--or a prejudice--without hearing both sides of the question.

"Sailing Canoes and Cance Sailing," by J. A. Goldthwait '17, is an able defense of an attractive sport by an enthusiastic sportsman. His firm belief in future days of intercollegiate canoe races may be a trifle optimistic; possibly quite impractical, but it is meritorious. The University offers many sports to those who wish to benefit by them, but the tendency in favor of major athletics or none is still altogether too strong among us. Exercise and recreation for the great majority who are not trained athletes should be our greatest endeavor, and everything which tends in this direction should be encouraged.

J. S. Halstead, president of the Yale "Courant," contributes a good description of the Yale dormitory system, and points out the advantages of having all classes housed by the college; advantages which we are gradually learning to recognize. With the unifying of the classes in this manner, could come a broader use of the custom now being started by the Freshmen, as described by Dr. Davison in "Singing at the Freshman Dormitories." Choral singing, like athletics, is meant for the many, but is here confined to the few. The Glee Club meets a want, but only partially fills is.

Captain Nightingale gives an interesting and enlightening account of the origin and history of lacrosse, with sound arguments concerning what it does for the College and the individual. Lacrosse, according to Captain Nightingale, affords another outlet for the energies of the untrained athlete.

The number contains food for thought on many institutions, for him who will but read and think.