THE MAIL--

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The Discarded Weed

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

A cigarette is a small thing: so is a match. Both are smaller still after being burnt, but, as the poet says, "Little drops of water, little grains of sand,' etc. If we carry on the conceit, the purpose of my letter immediately becomes apparent. It is supposed to be hard enough to begin with to get students into class-rooms. Certainly, then, it is illogical that we should have to reach them by wading a moat of cigarettes and scaling a wall of matches.

Someone asks at once who put the cigarettes and the matches there. Admittedly, we are at fault, but what would you have us do put them in our pockets, or eat them? We might be requested to stop smoking, but I think an easier solution would be for the college to provide receptacles of some sort. Considering the number of cigarettes smoked and matches burned, it is really a tribute to the student body that the classroom buildings are accessible at all.

There are obvious disadvantages to having such receptacles about: some artistic temperaments might be crazed by the violation of the classic beauty of the Yard. I only beg them to compare the pictures. There is a proverb somewhere about the "lesser of two evils is there not."

I would however, avoid the stigma of narrow-mindedness. Numerous methods are possible for disposing of the offensive articles I take it for granted that no one considers them decorative. A goat tied securely in front of each entrance would be effective. Students might be requested to deposit their burnt matches and half-smoked cigarettes in the fill across the Charles where the Business School will one day stand. An exchange department might be established where second-hand cigarettes could be ransomed by the inch, one inch of Melachrino equals a Sweet Caporal for instance, and similarly for matches. The collections of this bureau could be used by the Chemistry Department in experimenting for a new cattle-food, fuel, or building material. Oh, there are numberless ways to dispose of extinct cigarettes and worn-out matches. May I hope, and I know that I'm not alone, that one of them, or a better one, will be adopted? M. M. Atwater '26