"TIS AN ILL WIND--"

The statement by Dean Yeomans to the effect that the undergraduate of today is more mature than the one of a generation past, is gratifying, to say the least. The thought that we could for a moment rank above the be whiskered beaux that stare at us out of the pictures of yesteryear had never entered our heads; the most we hoped for was the courage to steer a semi-dignified course down the path where they had trod before. But now that is all changed.

We learn without warning that our predecessors played boyish pranks, dodged an education, and generally mistreated the glorious manhood of sideburns. Rumours of such things had previously reached our ears, but somehow we had failed to connect them officially with these portrait ancestors. And now we do not know whether to thank the Dean for his compliment, or to deplore his shattering of our beliefs. Incidentally, to return a Roland for an Oliver, the wisdom of the whole disclosure might be questioned; for, having no longer the respect of the shades to hold us down, to what lengths of frivolity might not the present generation be tempted to go? If our fathers did thus and so, why not we? It is unwise to let the son know that the parent once stole jam.

Another cause for worry is the prevalent theory that it takes character to be bad, and ingenuity to be notorious. If the present day undergraduate is neither bad nor notorious, has he either character or ingenuity? Is his weakness the result of maturity, or mere lack of personality? Certainly we are inclined to doubt the ability of any one now in college to coax a horse up to and out upon, the roof of Harvard Hall!