IN A STRICTLY PARTISAN WAY

"And every where that Mary went, the Lamb was sure to go." This more of less fond relation is equally true of the Republican and Democratic Parties, but the tie is not so much of love as competition. Some few days ago the Republican sympathizers in Harvard arose, in their strength, and almost by spontaneous generation, the Democratic constituency yesterday loomed up in rivalry. There is a remote possibility of future skirmishing worthy of the two descendants of once virile forbears.

And if, in the present instance, the Republican Club waxes as vehement and conspicuous as its predecessor which flourished in the day of Harrison and Cleveland, the Democrats will have to look to their standards. In the 1980's a mock election was held in the College. Harrison polled 1114 votes to Cleveland's 851, and feeling ran so high that the Graduates' Magazine excused it by saying "That no incompatibility existed between one's membership in Harvard College and a dignified participation in political affairs, even in a strictly partisan way." Evidently, from this, some liberalist, best-man sentiment was in the air to call out an otherwise pointless apology. Of these two ancient rivals, the Republican Club was the longer lived, and as an Oxonian remarked, "It outdid any society for diffusion of knowledge-or ignorance!" It sent out 30,000 speeches, and held torch light processions of some brilliancy.

These two "friendly enemies" had in their turn a predecessor in the pre-Civil War days which was one body and known as "Parliament, or Debating Society. Its arguments on slavery often served to heat an otherwise chilly room by means of abundant, fervid productions. Just how warm the rivalry between the present parties will turn out to be, remains to be seen, but it is doubtful whether, lacking the lubrication which was indispensable in the older clubs, the speeches will have that old time flavor, and fiushed conviction.