THE Williams Review, in an editorial, gives an account of and discusses the late boating convention. In an appreciative manner and a very amusing style, it depicts the disgraceful confusion that there prevailed. The performance it describes as consisting of two pieces, - a carefully prepared farce, entitled "The Packed Committee," and a burlesque, "A Freshman Unmuzzled." Throughout the piece its spirit is well sustained, and its roughing efficient. An extravagant view of the matter, however, is only taken in speaking of the ludicrous position which many of the colleges were made to hold in voting against their own interests. As regards those questions on which any difference of opinion can exist, there prevails throughout a temperate tone.
THE Wabash Magazine contains a delightful poem entitled "Charley." It is supposed to be written by a young woman to whom he had been engaged to be married. When young,
"I and Charley played together late and early every day." They appear to have played particularly hard, for, growing tired,
"Charley's curly head would nestle fondly on my panting breast."
But at length Charley went to college, and we all know what he is going to do: -
"Bit by bit I learned the secret, - Charley, young and easy led,
Far had left the path of Virtue, far in Sin's dark highway strayed.
"Led astray by bad companions, step by step had been his fall;
Smoking cigars, playing billiards, joining in the drunken brawl;
"Step by step, but ever going, noting not the course he held,
Till, at last, disgraced, dishonored, he from college was expelled."
This raises a commotion in the family mansion, and the old gentleman, having put on his heaviest boots, we presume, goes "to bring the culprit home."
"Yet he came not; but his father, bowed with sorrow, came at last, Saying, with a pair of ruffians he had started for the West."
A few lines are now devoted to the hysterics which are to be expected under the circumstances, and then comes the climax: -
"But to-day there came a letter, - ah ! I knew the writing well: -
"And it told us he was lying in a Western prison cell;
"Chained and waiting for the morrow, - it was thus the letter said, -
Then in air to be suspended by the neck till cold and dead:
"For he had committed murder, - then he said to all, 'Farewell,
Hoping ne'er again to see you, - it can only be in hell.' "
The subject is boldly and originally treated. We recognize the right of literary ladies and gentlemen, founded on custom, to paint us very black indeed; but we are used to being saved at the eleventh hour, and demand it as a right. We cannot, therefore, commend this poem for its sentiment, although the execution is eminently artistic.
THE Packer Quarterly comes to us with its dashing blue covers and neatly printed pages, so enticing withal (we know it is edited by young ladies), that we fain would praise it. But our conscience scarcely permits us to do that, so we content ourselves with criticising what seem to us faults in its articles. The first part is heavily critical and religious; the poems are, to say the least, tame, and after every essay there seem to be printed the words, "Haec fabula docet." What articles are not of this nature are the merest society twaddle. Servant-girls and babies may be very pleasant topics of conversation to these young ladies, but they are hardly the subjects one would choose to drag before the public in an essay for a quarterly, and in such a place thorough discussion of a matter is expected rather than a superficial narration. Besides all this, such articles as "The Moon Hoax" - a valuable piece of information, no doubt - are more suited to the local columns of the daily press than to pages where we have a right to expect something more than mediocrity.
PROFESSOR. Dr. Wayland calls conscience a Faculty; is the term well applied?
STUDENT. I think so, sir, as it always interferes when we are doing any mischief. - Exchange.
THE Boston Journal of Chemistry for May has been received. Its columns, filled with varied information, not only interesting but also useful, are found serviceable to many. To the student of Chemistry it is specially valuable, containing many scientific articles and the latest discoveries.
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