Mimes Thrill Yard

SFMT--that stands for San Francisco Mime (pronounce it "meem") Troupe, and they came to Harvard yesterday to help the revolution. After marching to the Loeb as the "SFMT Gorilla Band," and holding a brief rally-concert to greet Faculty members, they marched back to the Mem Church steps where a more receptive audience was waiting.

The Mime Troupe began their performance with a rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner," to which the omnipresent "Polish Freedom Fighter" lent his lusty baritone when he felt they were doing it less than justice. They followed it with several gutter puppet shows, and a skit satirizing the press.

The first puppet show consisted of a Federal meat inspector (who looked suspiciously like a drill sergeant) convincing a young calf (who loked suspiciously liek a draftee) that, since he had been graded "A-1 Prime" it was his duty to serve, unless, of course he could demonstrate a belief in some "Sacred Cow in the Sky."

The second puppet show was obviously a take-off on "Little Black Sambo," entitled "Little Black Panther." if does not take much imagination to guess the alternations in plot.

The satire on the press, entitled "The Fourth Estate," centered on the dialogue between a student striker and a news reporter. The skit grew out of the San Francisco State strike, but with selective alteration of proper nouns, it seemed to fit Harvard tolerably well.

At one point, the student asks the reported, "Say, just what's the difference between you and the pigs?" The reporter replies, "Why I'm on your side! Up against the wall-uh, so to speak."

After finishing their show, the "Gorilla Band" led a march that wound its way through University Hall's southern corridor, out and around John Harvard, and back through the northern corridor. Several of the marchers remarked that they felt claustrophobic--their last exeperience in University Hall having been somewhat less than pleasant.

The column then marched past Sever, out the Widener Gate, down Massachusetts Avenue, through the Square and towards the Loeb. By that point the initial number of marchers, approximately 500, had been reduced to 350 to 400. Still chanting, they marched around the Loeb and back to the Yard via Garden Street. After passing through the north doors of University Hall one more time, the march disbanded on the Mem Church steps, with some of the marchers sitting down to listen to the broadcast of the Faculty meeting and the rest going back to whatever it was they were doing before it all began.