LAMPOON'S HUMOR PROVES OF EXCELLENT QUALITY

Those who read the Lampoon regularly have long grown accustomed to a dull Freshman Number at the beginning of the year. For apparently summer vacations do not lighten the touch of the Muses; and even the Bacchanalian revels of those editors who re-create abroad seem to weigh heavily upon a jester's pen. This being so, the quantity of amusing verses, apothgems and drawings in the current number augurs well for a good year of the magazine. Several pages, it is true, are obviously filled with stuffing--with the tatulent buffoonery which comes of labored writing. Almost invariably the editorials are of this quality; some of the jokes, too, are hammered out on solid, lifeless anvils. The skit entitled "The Freshman and the Two Gentlemen" and the first of a series of "Prominent Harvard Graduates" do not commend the Lampoon's flowing bowl. And the text of the first page is scarcely better.

Elsewhere in this number, humor comes more easily. The author of the casual lines entitled "By the Way" has done his work uncommonly well. In economy of expression he excells as well as in the quality of his matter. Likewise, "Typical Topics" and "Lampy's Question-Box" are well done in a vein familiar to readers of humorous columns in contemporary newspapers. Into the involved "Chart" the statistician has inserted sly fun, and also some commonplaceness. "The Freshman's Credo" is another bit of sophisticated writing which has avoided the fatal touch of routine. Much of the verse, too, is skilfully written. In technique and invention "Loose Lyrics" is vastly pleasing. The author of "Sir Gwan Ye Greene Knighte" has appropriated to little purpose a most entertaining method of expression; the feeble tale of his quaint jingle does not match the quality of his rhyming.

Except for the cover and other drawings signed by Saunders the illustrations in the Freshman Number are interior to the letter-press. Mr. Saunders's cover in the manner of Maxfield Parrish and his rapid sketch of a Spanish maiden and gallant have distinction. One unsigned drawing entitled "Little Willie's Idea of African Golf" is also inspired. But the other drawings do not stray far from the conventional. Indeed, the art department appears to be the weakest part of the Lampoon. The magazine seems written with more freshness than is the case in those frequent, bare years when it lives but does not flourish; many of those who write for it have more than usual talent. The importance of the Lampoon in life at Harvard, quite apart from its tradition, cannot be valued too highly. Few of us would want all Harvard undergraduates to appear as solemn and grave as they do in the serious publications. It is good to feel that the Lampoon is in such good hands this year