Life at Harvard.

The following article, which appeared in the March number of Our Day, in reply to Aleck Quest's "Fast Set at Harvard," was written by a recent graduate of Harvard, who, as he himself says, had every opportunity to know the facts:

"There can be no doubt of the existence or a class such as the one described-indeed in so large a community of young men it would be strange if there was not. The almost entire freedom from restraint at Harvard, and the prestige of Harvard connections, have attracted a large number of social and worldly papillons from New York and Chicago society, whose lavish expenditures and dissolute living are no torious. Nevertheless, Cambridge is not a Capua or a Corinth, as Aleck Quest seems to paint it. Per contry, the moral tone of the students as a whole will bear comparison with that of any other body of students, with that of any other body of students, while in intellectual matters the ferment of thought and study is far more fruitful and vigorous than elsewhere in America. Furthermore the ratio of higher thinkers to high livers is continually rising, as the library and office statistics show. The great populace at the University is apt to slur over moral laxity in a man provided he is affable and kindly, i.e., a 'good fellow.' Yet it is undeniable that the feeling of contempt, for vice and extravagance, gathers strength among all as the four years pass. The influence of the sporting men, of men of fashion, and of the heavy subscribers to athletic games (i. e., of the fast set), which is overwhelming in the freshman year, is almost entirely supersided by the influence of the Monthly editors, of the members of historical, philosophical and finance clubs of the senior year; and as the upperclassmen give the tone to the college, you see how misleading Mr. Quest's article is. The fast men are there and do harm to themselves. But the importance which Mr. Quest's article assigns to them and their doings is wholly unwarrantable.