Not With a Whimper

They're in mourning over at the Bandroom, for their Drum is dead. The eight-foot instrument, once the largest playable bass drum in the world, expired last week after a twenty-eight year battle with damp weather which expanded its cowhide sides, and a mammoth drumstick, which contracted them. But the Bandsmen are not spending their time in idle, tearsome reflections--of how the Drum stopper a Yale student who tried to jump through it, of how a Cambridge boy once rode on top, whamming it with the huge drumstick.

Instead, they are already at work, trying to get a new one. With characteristic diligence, they have found a company which will build a new drum, and with characteristic brashness, they have ordered it, although they lack the necessary $1,500.

For this reason, the Bandsmen will begin canvassing for funds in dining halls this evening. If they can get the necessary amount in the next two weeks, they will be able to haul a new drum onto the field for the opening football game next season. The new drum, in fact, will be bigger than the old, thus surpassing the instrument purchased by the University of Florida last year, once again giving the Band the biggest in the world.

The Band is not asking much--two dimes per student. It deserves undergraduate support, not only to restore a Band symbol, but to continue a Harvard tradition.