A HARVARD RENAISSANCE

Two hundred years ago, after much bickering as to size and price, and a proper or improper reprimanding of the President for laxity in expounding the holy Scriptures, the Board of Overseers voted to build Massachusetts Hall.

Since that time the latter has experienced queer life.

Originally a dormitory, in 1775 it became the ill-treated barracks of the Continental soldiers. Fifty years later it rose to fame as Harvard's well-known lecture and banqueting hall. For years the eminent Phi Beta Kappa dinners were held within its walls, and there, on commencement mornings, the President and other officers of the University welcomed the Governor of the Common-wealth.

Then came the hall's decline in prestige until not many months ago it received in general usage the merited name of "the University's store house." Fire one glorious April morning last spring, released it from ignominious oblivion.

Now, after two hundred years, by a vote of the Board of Overseers it is being put back in its original state and will no doubt soon enjoy its pristine honor of being reputed Harvard's most beautiful hall.

This the cycle is completed and we experience the amazing situation of geeing one Board of Oversees two countries later follow directly in the foot-steps of its predecessor. Will the time come, perhaps in 2020, when all the now ourloos, century-old edicts of the Overseers will be renacted, when again the Board will say it is immoral, for the young men of Massachusetts Hall to have their hair dressed on Sunday and will again vote "That the President shall Entertain the Scholars in the Hall with Frequent Expositions of the holy Scriptures"?