THESE SAD YOUNG MEN

When momentary folly sends one into the sudden permanence of probation and the certain unpleasantness of publicity one realizes that there is at college as elsewhere an eternal fitness of things which is lasting and must not be violated. Recently certain members of the freshman class at Harvard were so indiscreet as to egg the seniors on to wrath and the rest of the college on to disgust at their mawdlin behavior. Now some members of the Yale freshman crew have committed the venial but vicious sin of cheating at examinations. So two colleges include certain individuals whom a Yale graduate of fame and fortune could call "These sad young men."

For no one ever after a time of foolishness fails to realize how very much better the status quo would be had he been wiser. Yet human nature being what it is certifies the recurrence of these moments in the lives of most people. Neither the freshmen who threw eggs at a Harvard tradition or those who broke a Yale tradition are really worse than the average person. From their ranks few master crooks or mighty anarchists will arise. Young, and with the momentary desire to get the most individual fun out of life, these hedonists forgot that they were part of an organization whose name as well as their own they were sailing.

The whole affair or both affairs resolve themselves into expressions of that youthful indiscretion which can be so charming and can be so damnable. College is supposed to keep the charm and erase the damnation. So the fact that Yale offers in true sportsmanship to place another crew on the river or let the Harvard freshmen race in the Junior varsity event, is not without significance. It shows even more clearly to the public than such moves usually do the fact that the college is trying to maintain standards of sportsmanship and honor and that this indiscretion of certain individuals is noticeable because of its deviation from the normal run of things at the American college.