DAUGHTERS OF XANTIPPE

The ducking stool is altogether too archaic for a college campus, so the University of Detroit is attempting to solve the problem of feminine garrulity by threatening to expel any co-ed who is discovered talking to a man on the campus. The objection of the University authorities is that the inherent conversational abilities of the girls prevents many of the men from attending to their studies.

The previous results of attempts to control women do not promise much success to this project. The traditional last word of Xantippe and the saline perversity of the wife of Lot show that restrictions are not particularly adaptable to them. The objection of the associate editor of the college newspaper that co-eds "waylay and harass the male students", and, "destroy the studious and scholarly atmosphere of the college," are just as vain as the same argument that resulted in Socrates taking up his abode in the public square. At Detroit fifty girls are opposed to two thousand men, but Cleopatra had something that kept the Roman Legion at bay, while the sex appeal of Helen launched a thousand ships.

The remarks of the girls themselves upon the matter show how blased this contest will be. They have swept all of the erudition of the newspaper editor to one side with the glorious gesture that, "girls can't be annoyed with him." Saint Anthony himself would have felt chagrined at such a disregard of his charms. If this practice continues, the old fable of the weaker sex will soon enough be regulated to a place among the other nursery rhymes at Detroit University.