AMONG THE LIONS

As seems all too often the case in affairs of kidnapping, information concerning the whereabouts of Handsome Daniel II, is both obscure and veiled by equivocal voices. He is here, he is there, he is everywhere--and his absconders are not to be found. News dispatches circulate the report that all Yale bewails the loss of her mascot, and that copious tears flow from the eyes of undergraduates as they reenter their Gothic cloisters empty of hand. No single student at Yale will rest peacefully until the pup is returned.

It was to be expected that members of the Lampoon, undergraduate humorous publication, should advance with characteristic reticence to assume responsibility for Daniel's surreptitious abduction, but there are grounds for the belief that the deed was effected far too cleverly to admit the faltering technique of amateurs--however practiced they may be in pursuit of dame publicity. A great deal more basis is there for the surmisal that the thing was purely an inside job, and that Daniel, collar, leash, attractive physiognomy and all--fell victim to dissension within his own camp. His ministry has not been wholly a successful one, and other ministers, more handsome perhaps than Daniel, have fallen to the assassin's blade for less.

For it was a poor and bedraggled little animal that was led around Soldiers Field last fall between the halves of the football game. Handsome Dan was a lovable pet, but his success as a mascot was open to grave question. His enthusiasm for his masters seemed ever dilatory, and although he watched the Blues thrive in the field of winter sports, even this could hardly regain the prestige he had lost in the fall.

Poor Daniel. It may be that he was not wanted, and that the end of the tale will be disclosed with mute clarity when a skeleton in a burlap bag is washed ashore on the coast of Connecticut. But when the grim remains, whitened by wind and rain, are laid gently to rest, they will have the sympathy and respect of every true sportsman. Daniel has been a noble beast, and, like all good dogs, he has had his day.