"ADVOCATE CREDIT TO EDITORS"

The first number of the Advocate this year, issued in spite of almost insuperable difficulties, is a credit to the few editors who were able to take any active part in its preparation. There are a number of contributions from graduates, but the work of the undergraduates is decidedly the better.

The best piece of work in the issue is "Cats" by I. J. Williams, Jr., '20. It is ingeniously put together with alternate bits of the naive and the blase, but it is real stuff. Mr. Williams is in service, and so this interesting essay whiffs of the trenches.

There are two rambling historical chapters of Harvard life which ought to be of particular interest to the graduates. "The Waterfall with a Rainbow Therein" by J. B. Wheelwright '20 is a summary of the development of Harvard by ages, with the impressions of a Sophomore in the present Cyclonic Age. Mr. Wheelwright is naturally more interesting for his impressions of the Harvard of today.

The other chapter of Harvard life is of the backstairs variety. It is called "Thirty Years of Harvard Aesthetes" and is by Dorian Abbott '15. It is an account of the exotic at Harvard, both past and present. Some of the characters are easily recognizable. "Cigarette" is obviously Alan Seeger, and if I did not feel for the war-time purse of the CRIMSON in defending libel suits, I could catalogue a rather distinguished array of aesthetes referred to. The moral attitude of the writer is clear: he frowns upon gin-drinking and purple lights, and sneers at aesthetes who use cologne and wear fillets.

"Venice to St. Petersburg" by P. V. Donovan '18, depends for its chief interest on the old time thrill which even Americans felt at hobnobbing with royalty. Now, the thrill is a very slight tremor with a tendency to a chill.

The "Impromptu from Senlin" by Conrad Aiken '11 is rather monotonously sad. However, it suffers from being torn out of a long narrative poem.

There is an excelent sonnet "End", by Joseph Auslander '17; a short piece, "Billy Sunday in Boston," by S. F. Damon '14, which shows at least that Mr. Damon is a clever son of Gertrude Stein by Donald Evans; and a couple of sonnets on "Bayonet Drill" by Damon and Malcolm Cowley '19, which are interesting souvenirs of the R. O. T. C.

For full measure there is a skit, "Aix and Pains", well worth reprinting from the American Field Service Bulletin, and the usual quota of editorials and announcements.