EDITORS HARVARD HERALD: Your suggestion as to the formation of a Harvard Canoe Club is excellent, if the formation of such a club would result in advancing the interests of canoeing at Harvard; but if it were to be formed merely to the end of adding another form of amateur contests to our already overstocked list, its advisability seems to me extremely doubtful. Canoeing-legitimate canoeing-is one of the most delightful sports in the world, and this fact is known full well to its votaries; but if the recent "boom" in canoeing interests, observable throughout the amateur sporting world, is to have its final outcome in the degenerating of this sport into a mere form of racing contests, then the "boom" is to be deplored rather than welcomed. I am not such a fanatic as to disapprove of all racing with canoes; the Lake George races of the A. C. A. have been interesting, enjoyable, and strictly non professional. But I am very apprehensive lest canoeing at Harvard, if once taken under the patronage of a canoe club, would inevitably degenerate into merely one other opportunity for class and college contests. True, if a club could be established which would confine itself principally to cruises, and make races a minor consideration; it would certainly be a desirable thing. The bicycle club can be cited as one Harvard organization at least which is not a mere racing committee. But how much real vitality has the bicycle club at present? I know it is useless for me to harp upon this universal tendency at all our colleges to turn all possible sports to the interests of contests of some sort or other; and to speak of the impossibility of sustaining any interest among college men in any sport that is not perpetually bolstered up and galvanized into activity by this stimulus. The life of a college man as a college man, seems to be altogether made up of "contests" of some sort; inter-collegiate athletic contests, oratorical contests, racing, and all sorts of rivalries with other colleges, are his very existence. But it is well known that a novice always has the crudest tastes, and it takes long to acquire refinement and the art of extracting delicate pleasure from quiet sports. It is admittedly so with yachting and canoeing. But a canoe club of the right sort would be a glorious thing for old Harvard.

AMATEUR.