Mr Lamont's Lecture.

The lecture by Mr. Hammond Lamont upon "The College Student on a Newspaper" was exceedingly valuable, especially to men who intend to enter journalism upon graduation. Every word of the lecture was to the point, broad generalities were escheived, and suggestions upon journalism were given in detail.

Mr. Lamont first described the newspaper as it exists today, and the requirements for service upon it which college men must prepare themselves to fulfil. Before the civil war, even our leading papers did not concern themselves with presenting news, they were rather the organs for expression of opinion upon well known subjects by able writers. The editor was great, the reporter insignificant. Today, however, people are not ready to follow other men's opinions; their one desire is for the news and for all of it. There are not more than four editorial writers in the country whose writings possess wide and strong influence.

A man, then, must above all, be a good news-gatherer to be a good reporter. Ability to put his news in presentable form will count, but not for nearly so much as the ability to get the news. A successful reporter ought to have all of these qualities, - health, temperance, observation, strong memory, accuracy, pluck, and tact. Health is indispensable for the hard, irregular, and worried life. Without temperance, a reporter never can inspire his superior with confidence. To gather his news he must have observation, that is plain; there are circumstances when a strong memory is the only means for retaining it, and that will become equally plain through experience. Accuracy is one of the rarest and yet certainly the most valuable traits of the able reporter. The habit must be so impressed upon him that not even the hot haste of the newspaper office shall destroy it. A reporter, if he possesses this one quality of reliable accuracy, will never want a position. The need for perseverance and pluck comes from the fact that the greater amount of news does not happen before the public gaze. A reporter, if he is to give an accurate account of these secret events must be indefatigable in exhausting every source of information and verifying every rumor before he places trust in it. As for tact, it makes friends, and every friend is an unpaid assistant.

Mr. Lamont then discussed, also in detail, the advantages a college education brings for such work. Physical development is better in college than out of it, all of the courses tend to strengthen a man's observation, memory, accuracy, while his social experience ought to equip him with considerable tact.

The English courses here at Harvard offer a man especial advantages for forming a clear, firm style, and this will come into play both as a reporter and more particularly as an editor or critic. The college man ought to recognize, however, that it is not so much his style that will help him, as his general fund of knowledge, his disciplined mind, his pleasant manners and sound body.