The current Nation contains a letter from an indignant Yale undergraduate on the "senior society evil" at that college. We await the next number of the Nation with interest, feeling sure that the angry replies will be numerous. The subject of the Yale societies is a very troublesome one just at present. Frame time to time, we hear of some distinguished graduate who attacks these societies of his alma mater and who ridicules the customs to which they give rise. We, at Harvard, have long made a standing joke of the air of mystery which attaches to all the numerous pins which decorate the waistcoats of our Yale friends. And now the cry of reform is raised by an undergraduate of that college. While we do not doubt that investigation will do good to almost anything, we fear that any investigation of such a subject as secret societies will result in nothing but angry defiance on the part of the students who naturally feet that their privileges are being violated. Undergraduates are not apt to accept with any degree of grace, dictation from their alumni, believing as they do that they themselves are reasonable beings and can institute reforms if reforms be needed. The undergraduates of Harvard have already had a taste of indiscreet graduate interference in the matter of the disputed Colombia race and the dose, to say the least, was not palatable. In the same way the Yale seniors will probably resent any interference in their society system.

Whether with justice or not, "Yale enthusiasm" has been largely attributed to her society system. This fact will prove a serious stumbling-block in the part of the reformer. Of the merits of this particular case, however, we know nothing, although believing that, in general, college societies are productive of more good than evil. That they could be made productive of still more good in the case of every college, we do not doubt for an instant.