EDITORS HARVARD HERALD: It is now a matter of history, nay even of tradition, in the athletic annals of the college that a freshman nine has never beaten Yale. Yet there are a few now living who can remember that '81 was the last class to beat Yale in base-ball, and in view of a coincidence which shall later appear, it may not be uninteresting to '86 to know just how the thing was done.

The first game of the series was played, as usual, at New Haven, and the '81 nine left Cambridge with that buoyant confidence characteristic of all freshman teams. The result of the game was 8 to 1 in favor of Yale, - base hits, Harvard 3, Yale 12. The account of the game in the Crimson said: "The Harvard nine found it impossible to bat Lamb's pitching, which was remarkably fine, while the Yale men batted Cruger with comparative ease." The Yale freshmen were jubilant, in the Yale sense of the word. After their nine had again demolished the Harvard freshmen, and of course there was no doubt of that, they proposed to challenge the Harvard University nine and demolish them. The day for the second game dawned bright and clear*, and the Yale nine arrived accompanied by a noisy crowd of demonstrative blue handkerchiefs. The result of the game was 11 to 4 in favor of Harvard; base hits, Harvard 12, Yale 9. The University nine never received the proposed challenge.

It is needless for me to point the moral of this tale, but what (fresh) man hath done, that (fresh) man can do. Let me assure the freshman nine that the game will be an object of great interest to many others than the members of their own class, and that none will take more pleasure in seeing them win the game than those members of the class of '81 who may have the good fortune to be present.

'81.

* I am aware that the professor of rhetoric might take exception to this expression, as stilted and newspapery, but it is the stock phrase for beginning accounts of Sunday school picnics, and as the Yale-Harvard '81 game was an S. S. picnic of the first class, I feel that no other expression would be appropriate.