A FRIEND IN COURT

It will refresh the brow-beaten American to hear that no less then London music critic has openly and guilelessly praised an American institution. And it is a nice compliment to the University, or more properly to Dr. Davison, that the Harvard Glee Club is the object of this commendation.

In a recent interview with President Coolidge the critic of the London Times expressed a somewhat natural interest in the system of community singing in American schools and assemblies, and especially in the growing love of singing for pleasure's sake. Above all, this gentleman was pleased with the revolution which the Harvard Glee Club has accomplished in sounding the death-knell of the "Bull-Frog on the Bank" type of music, sung by what he terms "merely more or less convivial societies for singing raucous songs with banjo accompaniment"--an astoundingly accurate description.

Dr. Davison's purpose and methods have ceased to be novel here; even the bitter disputes of two years ago over the name of the Glee Club have permanently ended (let it be hoped). Dr. Davison has proved conclusively enough that when properly led and instructed, the college man is susceptible to the appeal of good music, which might never have been suspected in former days, and moreover that the public can be taught to discriminate, and to appreciate,--which is equally important. However, the extraordinary success which the Glee Club has enjoyed in America does not make this compliment from abroad less gratifying; the favorable comment of the Times will enhance the enviable reputation which the Glee Club won for itself on its European trip of three years ago.