Although the celebrations in which the students of Harvard occasionally indulge are often annoying to the seriously inclined and especially to the quiet inhabitants of Cambridge, there is invariably some cause for the celebrations, and in most cases a good and sufficient cause. Our celebrations, we believe, are always confined to victories, which have been won by our teams. At some of our sister colleges, however, this limit is overstepped. The slightest cause will often be considered sufficient for a celebration. At many of the smaller colleges the completion of the study of mathematics is seized upon as a suitable occasion for a procession and other appropriate exercises. The sophomore class at Dartmouth recently cremated their mathematics. The occasion is thus described by one of our exchanges. "A procession led by a brass band paraded the principal streets. It was composed of thirteen devils grotesquely dressed, and the remainder of the class in white robes bearing transparencies. A grand funeral car drawn by four horses contained the imaginary corpse. In the middle of the campus the fire was erected, around which a circle was formed, and the remains were burned to ashes amid lugubrious prayers and orations."

When we consider that the students of some colleges entertain their townsmen with a celebration of this kind, we may look with a different face upon the celebrations which are sometimes held in honor of our athletic victories. Yet we are glad to see that these childish exhibitions are becoming more and more uncommon. A few years ago cremations and kindred celebrations were the rule and not the exception at many colleges; now, however, they are decidedly the exception. Brown college was the last to give up this absurd custom. At a meeting of the juniors last week the "majority of the class seemed of the opinion that the traditional funeral was an unenjoyable and senseless ceremony, and that it was belittling to the class to get up a circus and play the role of clowns for the benefit of outsiders." With the increase in the average age of the freshman, and the continual raising of the standard of admission, accompanied by a more manly spirit, we may soon hope to look upon cremations and other childish exhibitions of forced celebrations as a thing of the past.