THE PRESS vs. HARVARD STUDENTS.

DURING the past year the College has been more or less stirred by the attacks on the character and behavior of Harvard students. It is difficult to say just when and where these attacks originated; but perhaps the ball was set rolling by the strictures on our religious opinions made during the course of Monday Lectures by the Rev. Joseph Cook, and by the discussion concerning Young Harvard which was carried on in the Transcript. There is no doubt that the men who made these attacks honestly believed what they said, and that they spoke with more or less (we think with less) knowledge of facts. The same was the case with the Independent, which felt called upon to read us a lecture on behavior, but which admitted that the evil practices deplored were confined to a comparative few, and that the majority of Harvard students were gentlemen in the best sense of that word. These attacks were well answered in several Boston papers, the Post especially showing, in an able editorial, that at least there was nothing radically wrong in Harvard studies or discipline.

During the spring, however, there was a change in the nature of the attacks, inasmuch as our assailants left truth entirely out of the question, and substituted - when any substitution was attempted - newspaper wit. On one occasion an agent of the Associated Press telegraphed all over the country that a Boston free-love convention had been broken up by Harvard students. Although the statement was entirely unfounded, it was published far and wide, and it also furnished the Graphic's artist with several pictures with which to adorn the front page of that reliable sheet.

When our crew went to Springfield last June, they were annoyed by an army of loafers, who, on account of a real or feigned connection with some newspaper, considered themselves privileged to hammer the shells, occupy the crew's quarters, and cross-examine each man on any point which might suggest itself to the reportorial mind. Now if there are any things which a crew must do, those things are to keep quiet and to keep their own council. What other means could have produced this desired effect we do not know, but it seems to be a settled point that the then simple but now historic sign, REPORTERS AND LOAFERS ARE WARNED FROM HERE, was sufficient to secure the crew from intrusion.

As a consequence of this notice, the press of the country has risen up to avenge itself of its injury. Commencing with the New York and Boston papers, the mania spread until the Burlington Hawkeye and the Denver Tribune vied with each other in their attempts to get off grinds on the incapacity of the Harvard student in a newspaper office; and the Philadelphia Press left out its most witty obituaries to make room for such stupidity as the following: -

"He was a graduate of Harvard, and he got a position on one of the Philadelphia dailies last week. 'Cut that stuff of yours down,' said the city editor as the new man came in with a column where a stick only was required. 'Do you desire a judicious elimination of the superfluous phraseology?' mildly returned the Harvard man. 'No! Boil it down!' thundered the city ed. The new man is gone now, - gone back to Boston. He says there ain't 'cultuah' enough in Philadelphia."

"For students in any college to set themselves above newspaper reporters is the most amazing impudence," loudly exclaims the Detroit Post, which goes on to say: -

"Of all ruffians under the sun, the college ruffian takes the palm; for, with the conceit of his own knowledge and the consciousness of his support coming often from some other source than his own labor, he feels himself to be a little god on earth."

Doubtless every reader of this article has seen still other slurs, many of which were as untrue and pointless as are those which have been cited. What has been said on the other side is not much, but it is to the point. Discussing the impertinence of reporters, George William Curtis, writing in the Easy Chair of Harper's Magazine, well says: -

"The real question involved is simply, What measures may properly be taken with bores? Private life and private people, including Harvard students, still have rights, notwithstanding the majesty of the press, and among them is the right to be rid of bores, whether they call themselves commissioners of the great dailies or not."

As to the editorial capabilities of Harvard students, that is beside the question; yet we venture to assert that, in all the higher branches of journalism, a college education is becoming each year more and more indispensable, and that the "cultuah" upon which the Philadelphia Press so derisively frowns will, after all, win in the long race.