This afternoon occurs the first winter meeting and we wish the officers in charge a successful outcome for their labors in preparing for this spring awakening of athletics. They have made considerable preparation and they ought to be rewarded therefor. Nor does the college wish to be disappointed by witnessing anything inferior to what it has been accustomed.

But it seems a pity that more men should not have entered for some of the events. There seems to have been wanting a proper amount of interest and energy among those who are qualified to take part in these contests. The list of entries taken all together is a remarkably slim one. Only fourteen men have entered, exclusive of the tug-of-war teams, for eight events. Of these eight there are three which will be walkovers, leaving three cups to be contested for together with the trial heat of the tug-of-war. Besides these regular events the contest for the general excellence up, an additional attraction, which has since its introduction created additional interest, will this year be a walkover for Mr. Bachelder who alone has entered for it. Much interest is centered in this trial, continuing through three meetings, and it seems a pity that it should not have aroused enough enthusiasm to call out more than one entry.

What the causes are for this thin showing of entries is a matter of conjecture. It certainly is not due to any lack of effort on the part of the officers of the association nor of the interest felt in the first meeting by the college. This latter is attested by the large number of graduates and undergraduates who attend this particular meeting in preference to the ladies days. We think that much of the cause is due to the lack of a director of athletics, or trainer, as such a man is more commonly called. Such a man is needed to give the proper instruction in wrestling, jumping, etc., which events go to make up the programme of these meetings, just as much as for instruction in track athletics later in the season. Much is also due perhaps to the general unsettled tone which has pervaded all branches of sport during the winter. This has been due to the general vacillating and non-committal policy which the faculty have pursued in their attempts to regulate athletics by inter-collegiate conferences and committees.

Notwithsanding the small number of actual contests there is no doubt that these will be warmly contested, as many of the men who are to take part have appeared as contestants in former years. This names alone will be sufficient to attract a large audience and we think that the access of the meeting is assured. The remaining meetings will, we hope, bring our a much larger field of entries.

The letter from a member of the Historical Society goes to prove nothing except that there is confusion in the councils of that society. The real grievance remains the same and the letter merely transfers the responsibility of that grievance from the shoulders of the authorities of the college to those of the authorities of the Historical Society. The college is greatly indebted to Mr. Ropes, who proposed the series of lectures on the Civil War, and to the Historical Society who took the matter in hand. That complaints are made about the management of the lectures does not in the least imply that we do not feel grateful. But in the case of a series of lectures, so interesting and so valuable as is the one in question, the object should not be merely to fill the house and give the lecturer a complimentary reception, but the advantage of the greatest number possible. Since the Historical Society has taken the series in hand, it owes it to the college that every practicable arrangement should be made, by which every person, especially every student, who desires it should be able to attend and enjoy the lectures. We were given to understand at first that the society had been refused the use of Sanders Theatre. When we complained of this we were told that we were laboring under a mistaken impression and that the theatre had been offered free to the society. But the society is said to have refused the theatre because they were afraid they can not get a large audience to attend and because it was impossible to make the maps large enough. Both of these objections are ridiculous on their face. The number of those who were unable to gain admission to Sever on the occasion of the last lecture would alone make a very respectable showing in Sanders, and many other persons would have come had they not felt that a seat could not be obtained. As for the maps, it is easier to draw large maps than small ones, and in Sanders the maps could be seen by all the audience at once, which is not the case in Sever. The Historical Society should certainly take measures to have the remaining lectures of the course in Sanders Theatre.