LATHER AND BLATHER

The Columbia University football player who made himself nationally famous by powdering his nose in the Columbia library some months ago must express his laurels in haste to the University of California. Those inconsiderate, Westerners, according to yesterday's New York Times, have gone him one better. Where he only powdered, they bring their shaving-tackle to the lecture-room, lather, rub it in or not according to their preferences in shaving-cream, and shave with as much success as lack of a mirror will allow.

There, beside the solemnities, perhaps the somnolence, of education lie, not only mirror, puff, and vanity case but shaving brush and lotion--and, one hopes, a porcelain mug labelled "Papa."

These crusaders wielded Gillettes in place of broadswords for the rising cause of equal rights for men, they said. The women students powdered their noses; the men shaved: and the professor, whose annoyance at having his lecture-room resemble a beauty-parlor started the whole thing, approved to the extent of awarding A's to the shavers.

Thus did the land of oranges and giant athletes prove itself worthy of its reputation. For the day of bearded miners is over and gone and the safety-rager is sold in the land, even as in the eppete East. And, viewed from the depths of University mid-years, the care-free higher education of California is more glamorous than ever.