WELCOME--BUT BEWARE

"Welcome, sir! I hope 1 see you well, sir," says the affable executioner to the condemned man as he mounts the scaffold. At the same time Chonheads runs his anger approvingly over the keen edge of his ax.

It is with something of the same smiling seriousness that the University throws open its doors to the returning student, so soon to undergo the ordeal of Mid-year examinations. There incongruity of the present moment intermingles wishes for a "Happy New Year" with warnings of the approaching period of trial and judgment. The anxious student consults the calendar and counts his hours of grace before the first examination.

Two short weeks of vacation have broken the thread of students habits--if one had them. Upon the golf links at Pinehurst, upon the sands at Miami, on the toboggan at Lake Placid, or in the quiet comfort of the family fireside, the Muses whispered in faint and unreal tones; Kant's "Critique" somehow seemed impertinent logic. But now the holidays are over. The dirty stop of Cambridge streets recalls a reality not to be doubted.

After all, its good to be back. There is a charm about the old place not to be denied. But those bothersome examinations! They cloud every happy thought. Then the student's real self, that fearless part of him which rises superior to the requirements for a degree, urges. "Courage! If you persevere, you'll get an education yet in spite of the petty demands of courses and the exigencies of examinations."