The Advocate for Jan. 21st is out to-day. The number, as a whole, does not do itself justice. The opening piece is a poem "To Clinton Scollard" which, being somewhat involved, holds its own in college poetry. The next article, "A Fellow Traveller," is the first of a number of short anecdotes. It has the recommendation of being interesting, but one feels a strong desire to assist the author on the matter of proper names and to suggest that there is something disagreeable to the reader at finding the hero in a town, beginning with an F and followed by a dash. Yet the anecdote is otherwise well told. "Phoebe Southerly" follows; being an account of the conversation of a skull, suspended from the ceiling by a cord, with a young man. The picture of the man with his pioe half way to his mouth listening to the words of a pretty skull, which now and then smiles oddly is ludicrous, to say the least.

"Not at the Ball," a poem (for want of a better word) of some half dozen stanzas, expresses in verse what the title says in prose, and it has this good point, that its author does not pretend to any wonderfully poetic idea, and does not try to express it in hexameter or pompous blank verse, and so we have a simple college poem which is sufficient unto itself.

Another story follows entitled "Princess Capricia." As it is the third in this month's Advocote, it has the disadvantage of having had two similar pieces coming before it, and thus the reader perchance would have desired something other than a story. But "Princess Capricia" is brightly told, and by leaving the matter in hand a little in doubt keeps the interest up after reading. The author has hit upon a good idea there.

The "Wanderings of Alexis" are still going on, and the interesting part of them is that there is such a mixture of sense and nonsense in them, one can scarcely tell whether to go on reading or toss the paper away in disgust. In the last number the disgust won the battle. In this number the temptation is the same, but the piece is written in an easy style which has held the reader till the end.

The Advocate closes with a piece entitled "Woodland Music." It has a certain "swing" which is agreeable. The poetry in this number of the paper, however, is not up to its usual standard by any means, and is in fact rather weak.