Reviewer Finds "Briny Deep" Issue of Lampy Maintains High Average--Good Humor, Not Barbed Wit, Is Keynote

The following review of the current number of the Lampoon was written by Dr. W. L. Rice '23, instructor and tutor in the English Department.

Under a bright cover of appropriately aquatic design, the pages of the current "Briny Deep" number of the Lampoon offer a half-hour's entertainment to those seeking relaxation after toil during these last days of preparation for the approaching examinations. But Lampy's readers will not be allowed wholly to forget the Reading Period; for the Jester's editorial wit once again plays around this academic innovation, and under an elaborate figure suggests the Sophoclean maxim that it is unwise to call any man happy until he has safely passed his final goal. Those who have followed Lampy's course will catch the hint that there are still a few, at any rate, who retain doubts about the success of the Harvard experiment. But the scepticism is good-humored, and the point is not pressed home.

Good humor, rather than barbed and sharpened wit is, indeed, typical of the whole of this present issue. There is plenty of pleasant nonsense, sustained from the verses on the first page through the burlesque accounts of the extraordinary exploits of Colonel (and Captain) Sir Harry Hard Sauce. But unfortunately this nonsense is frequently diffuse and inconsequent--the story of the Golden Girl's transoceanic flight would profit, for example, if there were in it less wandering of the fancy and more satiric thrusts. It is, moreover, a pity that L. C. Jones' bold and effective drawings cannot be provided with better text than that found on page 225. Sill in spite of occasional flatnesses, the general average is high.

The illustrations are for the most part amusing and well done. Such pieces as "Three Men in a Boat", redacted after the manner of Ernest Hemingway, provoke more than a single smile. There is a goodly scattering of squibs worth repeating, and there are verses which have distinct merit. One finds, in short, plenty of evidence that the editors have a talent for making humor prevail, a sense of values, and the wish to carry on an enviable tradition. They would profit most, perhaps, by more widespread and varied co-operation--there are evidences that the burden of this issue has fallen heavily up on two or three. And such co-operation the College ought surely be able to furnish with cheerful case.