Some-a Joke, Eh Boys?

"May I see a copy of that Confidential Guide?" boomed a voice in the Plympton Street office of the Harvard CRIMSON, and the attendant, who had just collected a year's subscription from the voice, promptly turned over a copy of the little pamphlet which is so much in demand these hectic days around Harvard Square to Roger Bigelow Merriman, B.Litt, Ph. D., D.Litt., LL.D., Gurney Professor of history and political science and master of Eliot House.

Out on the steps, Professor Merriman turned the pages of the frank guide to Freshmen courses, which the CRIMSON issued in pamphlet form this fall for the first time, and quivers of amusement began to gather around his inevitable pipe as he scanned the expressed criticisms of so many sacred institutions of the Harvard curriculum.

In spite of his amusement, he expressed sympathy for those who are in charge of certain survey courses belaboured by the Guide. "What can the poor devils do?" he asked. However, his applause was too emphatic for quotation as he read some of the outspoken quips, and the group which had gathered around to watch the great man's reaction quivered with anticipation as he turned the page to "History 1," the course which all recent graduates associate so vividly with Professor Merriman.

A roar of laughter followed his reading of the first two paragraphs, followed by even more hearty enjoyment as he followed down the page. "The adjective is a bit unfortunate," he bellowed, pointing out the "bombastic" with which he was characterized, "but all the rest is true."

"No, of course History 1 does not make them think, but remember how few of them can think," was his reaction to a neat little paragraph in the Guide which regretted the lack of original thinking required--or even desired--in the course, "I received a forty-page letter from Paul Cram which said precisely the same thing in the midst of telling me all the things wrong with the course--very sound, too."

And after giving due credit to Mr. Cram, who is Professor Merriman's assistant in History 1, for his work in helping organize the course, the latest subscriber to the Confidential Guide to Freshman Courses," went striding up Plympton street still chuckling over this great joke on him. Transcript.