REMINISCENCE EVIDENT IN GRADUATES' LAMPOON

Former Lampoon editors are naturally a little diffident about donning the motley, even under the stirring inspiration of a "Graduates' Dinner." So we are able to understand why the Old Graduates number of the Lampoon has more from the group which is neither Graduate nor Old than from the Elders.

Mr. E. S. Martin, in his leading editorial, strikes the note of humility and detachment characteristic of his group. The Lampoon must be sacred to youth, he asserts. Only when the fathers are in need of instruction should they visit their sons on Mt. Auburn St. Following the lead of their spokesman, then, the graduates have been more than willing to let youth be served.

Contributions Have Reminiscent Flavor

There is a decidedly "reminiscent" flavor to the "guest" contributions. Reunion dinners invariably induce a great deal of group sentimentality. This distinctive note is emphasized at the very outset by the undergraduate who designed the effective cover. (He is evidently close enough to graduation to feel premonitory twinges of graduate loyalty.) We can fairly see the Cambridge-longing in the mind of the solid citizen, who still must trail clouds of academic glory behind him, though his infant ignore the faithful geese, and cast the poppet upon the daisypied field.

Mr. Moe '97, picturing Lampy pere et fils conjures time to turn backward in its flight, and Mr. Noble '88, also breathes Etheu Fugaces in a seven stanza "praise of folly." Mr. McCord '21, and Mr. Alger '22, not yet having felt the sentimental stimulus of a class reunion, shape their sketches in the more or less familiar mold of modern college humor.

Graduates Out of Element

It must be admitted that most of the graduate contributions lead one to believe that the quondam editors are no longer in their element. This is only to be expected. Years of change both in the manner of inducing the smile, and in the graduates themselves are bound to make a difference. But there was one guest at the dinner, who pictures himself flying to Boston to Russian leaps, completely at one with the work he had to do. Of course Mr. James Montgomery Flagg is old in the ways of his craft. But he needed all his cunning to strike off the group around the board. With rapidity and daring he has caught them. Mr. Longfellow fils lends the dignity of the New England literary tradition to a group in no great danger of being considered restrained. Professor Lake and Professor Merriman both reflect deeply. Perhaps they are led by old loyalties to compare the organized humor of undergraduate England and America; to set the Lampoon over against the Isis of Oxford.