HEARTS AND FLOWERS

Threatening the very foundations of civilization, the custom of allowing the female to pursue the male with the approbation of convention is at the present moment the most destructive influence in human relations. History proves time and again that running contrariwise to nature has but one inevitable outcome-destruction. It may be pointed out that the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world; but, once every four years man closes his eyes, woman dons the pants, the hand seen rocking the cradle is a hairy, masculine one, and the female claw still clutches its cherished function of ruling the world. Reason, if we may be allowed a quotation, totters.

An important angle to be considered is whether or not the female actually desires and appreciates this exchange of roles. How many tender romances have been spoiled because a shy young thing refuses the man of her choice in Leap Year, fearing lest her acquaintances think she has been the aggressor? How many ornithologists have seen the birds observing Leap Year? What pisciculturist would have the audacity to maintain that the fishes would alter their simple system of courtship for a mere convention.

There will be those to maintain that this campaign is a tempest in a teapot, that the problem in reality is non-existent. Let them explain away the incontrovertible evidence that tonight throughout the land women's colleges are having their most important social functions. In the face of this temptation, it cannot be overemphasized that man has a duty to his gender in these tempestuous days. Let him not forget who pays for the corsages when the feminine knee is bent and the roughed lips are popping the question. Let him not forget who pays for the theatre tickets when two langorous eyes are pleading. It is the duty of every Harvard man, and every man throughout the country, to maintain his own integrity this year, to be firm in the face of the fiercest or most insidiously tender appeals, and find himself, on the night of December thirty-first when this year climbs into history, still a self-respecting bachelor.