CRITIC FINDS LAMPY MEDIOCRE

From the earthy Transcript and Cosmopolitan the Lampoon turns to spiritualism. Whether the vagaries of mediums and the pronouncements of scientists of high and low degree are to be regarded as the newest madness, or as a final revelation to a waiting world, Lampy does not tell us, buy the obviously ludicrous side of the movement, or craze, or what you will, is held up in his pages for the amusement of his faithful readers.

The manner of treatment is according to recent Lampoon traditions. By the cover and advertisements you may know a "special number", and the test holds good here. Once again advertisers have rallied round, editors have done their best with the little space left for them, contributors have laboriously given of their wit, and the whole has been by some benevolent genius framed into a well designed and effectively printed magazine. The formula, of course is old. One operatic burlesque, at least one biblical parody, seasoning in the form of an occasional lapse from good taste (if any there be benighted enough to notice such things), the conventional allusions to Mr. Cram, Terry and University Hall-these are the essentials of a routine Lampoon. These are here, each with a carefully introduced reference to an ouija board, a crystal, or a ghost. Quite in the orthodox fashion, the quality varies. Real humor hides between paragraphs of undiluted nonsense properly tinctured with spiritualistic jargon. Pre-eminence in the Lampoon's true field-good humored mockery of the incidents and figures in our academic daily round-is revealed in drawings and verse which, alas, leave much space for work that is less ably contrived. The old receipt has given the old result, and once again the taste that persists is that of the average and not of the distinguished. Perhaps, like the Magazine, the Lampoon craves the title of "representative." Perhaps the faint suggestion of dullness is but the result of a desire to express a mistaken idea of the average of undergraduate fun making. Even so, those of us who believe there is a higher standard and material to measure up to it, are disheartened.

Fewer "Special Numbers" Needed.

We may hope that some roving spirit may some day think it worth his while to guide the Lampoon's ouija board, and spell out the suggestion that fewer "special numbers" might raise the average of the publication. Perhaps there might be more well tempered satire of our college habits and point of view, fewer venturings abroad to tilt against the windmills beyond our gates, and fewer half hearted contributors joining in the quest. Surely nothing would be lost. The good drawings and clever writing of this "Spiritualistic Number" would be preserved, and presented, perchance, with other contributions worthy of them, instead of with what at times seems like back work compounded by a worn formula and dealing with a given subject. Of course, a disembodied soul bold enough to venture such advice could hardly hope for a hearing unless he haunted Mt. Auburn Street with uncommon persistence. Nevertheless if he were armed with a message in regard to National Coffee week, or Bolshevism, or some other topic dear to the Lampoon, he might gain audience. Surely his ghostly sayings would express the thought of many material but devoted Lampoon readers, inarticulate but eager for the highest of Lampoon standards, seeking the best and not the average of undergraduate humor, and pathetically ready to laugh and to praise on the barest excuse. KENNETH B. MURDOCK '16