THE SEVEN O'CLOCK BELL.

Custom, according to most writers on anthropologogy and sociology; is a survival, generally useless, perhaps absurd, and sometimes harmful. If writers had before their minds the seven o'clock bell which peals from the enpola of Harvard Hall, they could not have better formulated their definitions. For no apparent reason, the students in the Yard are daily inflicted with five minutes of sleep destroying agony. When inquiries are made concerning this nerve-shattering tocsin, the reply is invariable: that the bell has always been rung at seven, and probably will always be rung at seven, until its vibrations will have shaken down the very pillars which support it.

Customs are always interesting if they are neither absurd or harmful. No one has ever been known who was inspired into daily activity by the clanger of the seven o'clock bell. When the five minutes duration of sounding is multiplied by three hundred, this number of students living in the yard, it will be seen that sixty hours of sleep are lost per day by these unfortunate students.

For the welfare of all concerned, and for the dignity of the University, may the seven o'clock bell be abolished! Let the sweet tinkle of the alarm clock, awakening only its owner at whatever time he desires, replace the seven o'clock bell which jars from slumber every man within a quarter-mile radius.