OUR GANG

On the same day that a New York publisher was on trial before a Boston jury for selling a copy of "An American Tragedy" to a policeman, the nation's "bad boys" gathered for a Ford Hall Forum banquet to sink the Hub into the mire of ridicule. With Mrs. Sanger's mouth plastered shut and the eminent Clarence Darrow calling upon the wise to look upon life "as a huge joke," the assembled intelligentsia amused themselves with the obscenity of Mother Goose. Unfortunately the Grand Vizir of Maryland Free State was kept away by a sinus infection. Accordingly he lost a rare addition to his distinguished Americana anthology.

This first major outbreak of the Forum since its divorce from the Baptist Social Union was very self-conscious over the dangers of being too serious about its program of reform. "We are often too serious" said the editor of the Nation, a journal which has claimed to have a greater popularity among Harvard undergraduates than any other weekly--excepting The Saturday Evening Post. So the Undesirables who invaded the realm of the Puritans roared in revels of laughter as they received the import of Jack and Jill's climb up the ancient hill. It was an important occasion and the necessity for humor was one of grave solemnity.

Of course, one gets to think of these reformer people as queer long-haired strangers who care neither for the best or the nice things in life. But the Boston dinner party of the other evening proved that they too can become gorged with hilarity and paint the town as red as the rest of their less significant brethren.