TO THE EDITORS OF THE CRIMSON:-

IN view of the present phase of Class Politics, it may not be amiss to pass a bit of friendly criticism on the value of the so-called "Class Lives." Class after class has maintained the custom of having (or trying to have) every member write his "life" on sheets of abnormally large paper, which are intended to be bound with a manuscript copy of Oration, Poem, etc. in a "Class-Book"; records of all Class-Meetings are to be made in this volume; the unfortunate Class Secretary is expected to know the whereabouts of Tom, Dick, and Harry, their occupation and most private concerns, which are to be entered from time to time on the spaces left after the "Lives"; and thus the future Historian of the College, writing a continuation of Mr. Sibley's interesting book on Harvard graduates, will find abundant data for his biographies.

Speaking from experience, I can say that not sixty per cent of the class write anything at all, and the most part of what is written is not worth a picayune. Now and then a man has something worth mentioning, but the average life is a very cambric-tea affair, or about as amusing reading as the directory, here and there rising to the exciting pitch of Homer's Catalogue of Ships.

The change I would suggest to the present Senior Class is to abandon this farce of class lives, and have a large class-book with pages assigned to every man ever connected with the class. Have a brief simple history, comprising some few salient points, such as date of birth, name of father, and time connected with class; let each man write the secretary at least every two years, and from these letters let his "history" be collated by the secretary. It is absurd with such large classes as we have now to attempt individual lives of every member, and so many men see this folly and act on it, that the class-books now are very incomplete and unsatisfactory indeed; with less attempt more could be really done. With a small class the old system worked fairly well, with the classes of to-day it is effete and absurd; yet each class will knock its knees before this antediluvian shrine until the uselessness of the system has been demonstrated again and again. Really the men whose class lives would be most apt to be looked up are the very men who treat the Class Secretary to three lines, or return the immaculate sheets free from hieroglyphics but somewhat the victims of misplaced confidence. If the present graduating class should give up the old plan and adopt one similar to that proposed, its class-book might contain considerable valuable data, and not be a treasury of trash and nonsense.

C.