ROWING ASSOCIATION

The flurry caused in collegiate circles by the action of Harvard and Yale in seceding from the Rowing Association has now nearly subsided. Giving as reasons want of rivalry, unfair treatment, and general dissatisfaction, our two most influential colleges have withdrawn from the regatta; Yale's departure to be effected this year, and Harvard to appear but once more in the arena of that contest which is so rapidly degenerating into a mere sporting event. A general scrub-race, thrown open to crews from any of the twelve hundred and eighty-four so-called colleges of this unhappy Union, will soon become more like that celebrated caucus-race than a decisive trial of strength and skill. We prefer a duello to a brawl.

Such being the case, we hope that the centennial year is to inaugurate the era of good feeling between Harvard and Yale. The duello is a custom instituted by gentlemen, and presupposes a code of honor. Duels are ever polite, for the consent of a gentleman to measure swords is in itself a compliment to his adversary, and implies a certain parity of position and sympathy of sentiment. We hope, then, that the future contests between Yale and Harvard will not be marred by the expression of any feeling less creditable than honorable emulation. The students of Yale must certainly see, as we do, that the true interests of Harvard and Yale are identical, that our traditions are similar, and our sympathies common. Any feeling of hauteur or superiority with which Harvard undergraduates may have regarded Yale at the founding of that institution has certainly perished in the lapse of time. Any such feeling should certainly now vanish before Yale's fair escutcheon, blazoned, as they justly remark, with the noble achievements of one hundred and seventy years.

Let us then further our amicable relations by all the means in our power, and set an example to those colleges that are yet struggling in outer darkness. If Yale men regard us as a trifle snobbish, a shade supercilious, a jot too conscientious, a tittle quixotic, and ever so little conscious of our own superiority,- let us beg them to bear with us. Although our language be strangely fastidious, our personal appearance impertinently neat, we do not, surely, mean to be insulting; and it is not without reason that we are encouraged to hope that our Yale friends will endeavor to improve us by kindly pointing out our faults. So, also, if we find our Connecticut cousins rather unnecessarily patriotic, imbued somewhat deeply with the esprit du corps, or the least bit in the world too frank in expressing their opinions, let us merely say, "Their manners, you know, are so delightfully natural!" In conclusion, however, we really must remind our excellent friends- however much we may enjoy their little jeux d'esprit - that we are all more or less bound by social conventions; and the outside and unrefined world are sadly apt not to take insult or invective, as we know it is given,- purely, in a Pickwickian sense.