There is a practice here, of long standing, nourished by folly and disregard of gentlemanly honor, allowed to grow and increase by the indifference of the college and of its officials, which has long passed its day, if it ever had one,-we mean the cowardly joke of sign stealing. It seems now a recognized thing, that to lead a proper and full college life, one must steal one or more signs-the greater the number the greater the glory. But stealing it is, and to the college at large we doubt if the difference between the undergraduate who "rags" and the Bill Sykes who steals anything he can lay hands on is clear or marked. But though the sign-stealer, with his limited and perverse sense of honor, sees but a little harm and a great deal of sport, the Cambridge judges have long looked on this simple and innocent amusement from a different point of vies. Lately two undergraduates had to pay a heavy fine for indulging in this pursuit, and Judge Ladd threatened the next offender brought before him with three weeks in jail. We doubt if even the sign-stealer, with his fine sense of the ludicrous, would like to change his pleasant Holworthy room for the even cosier quarters of Charles-Street jail. Not only this, but the Cambridgeport policemen-misguided beings-unappreciative of little but important differences to which the student mind is keen, look upon sign-stealing as anything but humorous, and have taken to shooting at "sign-raggers." The huge joke of sign-stealing does not come home clearly to us; in any case it is a joke which may be followed by six months imprisonment and a felon's brand for life.

And this little joke also throws great discredit upon the college; for the public are only too ready to impute the actions of a few on the many, and do not stop to sift the good from the bad, tarring with the same brush all alike for the acts of a few reckless and dishonest youths.