LAMPY BUBBLES OVER WITH CHRISTMAS SPIRIT

The Christmas number of the Lampoon has unusual variety for a special number. Without harping on one string until the jests are out of tune, it simply reflects the general good cheer of the season; it gives us enough of the Christmas feeling, without fussing too much about Santa Claus alone. It is, in short, a good representative Lampoon, clear, clean, artistic, and observant of the life of the College and its relations to life outside.

Among humorous college magazines, the Lampoon is a kind of phoenix. The others seldom show so distinctly the spirit of the places that they represent. Most of them try too hard to compete with the professional funny magazines, and win their greatest glory in being occasionally quoted for the kind of jests that suit the newspapers; and most of them bristle with aculeate personalities, funny only to those in the know. The Lampoon has reason to be proud of the ease, decency, and geniality with which it reflects the spirit of the College. To have these qualities without being obscure, clubby, or dull seems at any rate the particular distinction of this Christmas number.

The laughs are not "family jokes" for Harvard men alone. The Blue Shirt Club, the Crimson, the undergraduate madness in shifting courses, the rival college, and many other particular elements of life in Cambridge are made fun of so that anyone could understand the reasons. Yet like Goldsmith's "History of England", this Lampoon does "no harm to nobody." It simply keeps the College healthily astir and confronts it with a modest image of itself at the present moment.

In view of the competence of such a number, the Board of Editors are to be congratulated. There are many of them, indeed, but so much the better for their success. The only obvious drawback for the reviewer is that he can hardly distribute praise or blame to the writers and artists one by one. Perhaps one of the best features of the Lampoon is that it is usually difficult to find the names of the contributors, though often one might wish to do so. The Christmas number is a distinct success.