"Fair Harvard" Not "Mutilated."

(We invite all men in the University to submit communications on subjects of timely interest, but assume no responsibility for sentiments expressed under this head.)

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

It is decidedly unpleasant to the members of the Regimental Band of this University to find their rendering of "Fair Harvard," adapted for their purposes and used otherwise only for marching, criticised as "mutilated ragtime." "Fair Harvard" is only one selection from a medley played by the band during regimental manoeuvres, and has been changed from 6-8 to 2-4 time, so that the rhythm may be fit for marching. There is a distinct difference between march time and rag-time!

"Fair Harvard," it is lamentable to note, is, if sacred, almost too much so. Many times it is sung with the most indistinct enthusiasm, a great number of students being so unacquainted with it that they know not even the words. Certainly there is no calling into question of its sanctity when it is played in an outburst of enthusiasm by a band trained to render it as a march. We cannot conceive it possible that the hymn may imbibe into its essence any coarse or unpleasant aspect because it resounds oftener in the ears of students; and the band hopes that such a community spirit in the rendering of the hymn may call into new life the "wholesome conservative opinion of many of the older members" of Harvard University. ALBION C. DEAN, 2D, '19.